05.20.08

The new report, "Where the Girls Are: The Facts About Gender Equity in Education," also argues for taking a closer look at gender disparities in education and breaking down statistical trends by students' racial, ethnic, and family-income levels, as well as by gender.

While girls still outperform boys overall on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in reading, for example, a closer inspection shows that the gaps are most pronounced and most consistent between white male and female students. Girls outscored boys on 29 of the 30 NAEP reading tests given since 1975.

Hispanic girls outperformed Hispanic boys on fewer than half of those tests, the report says. African-American girls outscored their male counterparts on 24 of the 30 tests.

Nonetheless, the report says, gender differences within racial and ethnic groups are small compared with the academic gaps that separate students of different income levels or different racial and ethnic groups.