Understanding Gaps Between Boys and Girls in Math

It may not surprise you to know that girls enter kindergarten more advanced than boys in reading, and that this gap remains fairly consistent even after they enter school.

But math is a different story. According to a research study from NWEA’s Megan Kuhfeld and the University of Virginia’s Margaret Burchinal, girls enter kindergarten on par with boys in math, but boys begin to pull away from girls in their first year of school—and these math gaps only widen over time.

I want to focus on this study that uses NWEA MAP Growth data from 12 million students in 22,000 schools to explore gaps between boys and girls in math and reading.

Contrary to fears about an “educational crisis of boys,” Kuhfeld and Burchinal find that boys are doing comparatively well. Pre-COVID, they entered kindergarten behind girls in both reading and math, but that gap has narrowed in recent years, especially in math. In the 2024-25 school year, boys entered kindergarten essentially on par with girls in math. That’s good news for boys on the math side.

In reading, boys continue to enter kindergarten behind girls, and those gaps remain steady through at least 5th grade. These gaps should trouble local school leaders, but they can at least take heart that the gaps are “fully baked” at school entry and do not grow over time, suggesting that schools neither exacerbate nor close disparities in reading. The same cannot be said for girls and math.

Girls start to fall behind boys in math after school starts.

Again, girls are now entering kindergarten ahead of boys in reading and on par with boys in math. But things quickly begin to diverge in math. Even by the end of kindergarten, after just nine months of formal schooling, boys have started to pull away from girls in math.

This finding is based on millions of American students and seems to have gotten worse in the years post-COVID. These findings also echo the results of a large study on France published in Nature earlier this year.

Gaps between boys and girls in math grow over time.

Kuhfeld and Burchina (2025)l followed each cohort of students across the elementary grades to see how gaps between boys and girls shrank or grew. Again, the gaps in reading (in favor of girls) start large and stay that way.

But in math, gaps grow over time, after kids enter school. Girls who start kindergarten on par with boys begin to fall behind immediately, and the gaps continue to widen throughout their elementary years. These trends appear to have gotten worse in the years post-COVID.

While Kuhfeld and Burchinal can’t explain the causes behind gaps between boys and girls, they point to the lack of role models and stereotypes as potential explanations. Regardless, their findings reveal some troubling implications for the role that schools play in exacerbating these gaps, particularly in math.

So, rather than framing these gaps as a crisis for either boys or girls, their findings suggest a more nuanced reality: Boys and girls face distinct challenges in school that require tailored support and attention. Recognizing and addressing these differences is essential to creating learning environments that support all students equitably.

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