Historically, studies show girls are better at writing, reading and the language arts, while boys perform better in the natural sciences, social sciences and math, Camara said. The differences begin to appear in the fourth grade, but increase gradually as students progress through the 12th grade, he said.
"As students go on in school, the differences get exacerbated. The gaps are bigger the more advanced the student," he said.
With fewer boys than girls taking the SATs and going to college, much of the concern about a gender gap in education today days focuses on how badly boys are faring.
About 57 percent of today's U.S. college students are female, experts say. Among the 40 percent of the nation's undergraduates who are 25 or younger, women outnumber men by almost 2-1, according to a 2006 report by the American Council on Education.
Boys also score uniformly lower in reading tests, in the United States and elsewhere, a result confirmed in the Science study.
"It's the boys in reading, I'm worried about. I don't know why they aren't moving up" said David Sadker, an education professor at American University specializing in gender issues in education.
Zingales, the co-author of today's study, jokingly agreed. "We are the weaker sex," he said
Although gender may matter, household income plays a much greater role in most standardized test score results, some experts say.
"What you see consistently is - for both boys and girls - those with higher incomes consistently score higher than lower-income boys or girls," said Christianne Corbett, a research associate with the American Association of University Women.
Meanwhile, with the exception of computer sciences, increasing numbers of women are entering science, technology, engineering and math-related fields, providing more role models for girls interested in math, Corbett noted.
"Kids tend to see as options things that are being done by people like themselves, so more women in these fields is important," she said.
dennis.obrien@baltsun.com
