ABSTRACT

Gender differences in educational achievement transpire to be different depending on whether we look at boys’ and girls’ participation in education and acquisition of education-related certificates on the one hand, or at their acquired cognitive competencies on the other. With respect to participation in education, in countries that ‘track’ students into different school types, girls are overrepresented in higher tracks because of their better grades, and are therefore more likely to obtain the entrance qualification for college or university studies. In contrast, boys are overrepresented in lower school tracks and among students leaving school without a certificate (e.g. for Germany: Statistisches Bundesamt 2011; for England: Department for Education and Skills 2007; for Europe: EACEA 2010; for the USA: Snyder and Dillow 2011; for a review, see Hadjar 2011).