In recent years, you have probably heard more and more about the so-called “boy problem” in education. The argument is that boys are already at a disadvantage when they start school. They are said to find it harder to sit still and to lag behind in language and executive functioning, while primary schools have become increasingly academic. And there is no denying that boys face some real challenges. More girls than boys now go on to higher education, and boys are more likely to leave school without a qualification. But that certainly does not mean that all boys struggle, or that all girls sail effortlessly through education.

Some commentators nevertheless argue that schools are now simply better suited to girls than to boys. Some even suggest that all boys should start school a year later. But is that really what the evidence shows?

A new study, based on data from almost 12 million American pupils, raises serious questions about that popular narrative.

Megan Kuhfeld and Margaret Burchinal analysed data from nearly 12 million pupils across nine successive cohorts, following them from kindergarten to the end of elementary school. Their reasoning was straightforward. If elementary schools really disadvantage boys, then boys should fall progressively further behind as they move through school. If schooling is the cause, the achievement gap should widen with every year of education.

That is not what the data show, at least not in the United States.

Girls do begin school with an advantage in reading. Even at the start of kindergarten, they outperform boys on average. What is striking, however, is that this gap barely changes throughout elementary school. In other words, most of the difference already exists before formal schooling begins and remains remarkably stable afterwards. Schools do not appear to widen the gap further, which is encouraging. At the same time, they do not eliminate it either. In that respect, the findings resemble many other forms of educational inequality.

The picture is quite different in mathematics. Before the COVID pandemic, girls started kindergarten with a small advantage in maths, but that disappeared during the first school year. By the end of kindergarten, boys had caught up. From that point onwards, they gradually developed a small but consistent advantage that persisted until the end of elementary school. In the most recent cohorts, even girls’ initial advantage at school entry had disappeared.

Perhaps even more striking is that this is not a new phenomenon. The researchers compared their findings with older national datasets going back to the late 1990s. The pattern has remained remarkably stable for more than two decades. Girls maintain an advantage in reading, while boys gradually develop an advantage in mathematics during the elementary school years.

Does this mean there is no “boy problem”? Not quite. The study does not claim that boys face no challenges. It focuses solely on achievement in reading and mathematics. It does not examine behaviour, executive functioning, motivation, well-being, or other aspects of children’s development that are often part of this debate.

What the study does suggest is that there is little evidence for the claim that elementary schools systematically disadvantage boys academically. If schools really were becoming increasingly unsuitable for boys, we would expect their academic disadvantage to grow over time. That simply is not what these researchers found.

Ultimately, perhaps the most important lesson is a different one.

Boys and girls, or rather pupils, each have their own strengths and challenges. On average, boys may need more support with reading, while girls continue to face persistent stereotypes about their mathematical ability. But teachers do not teach averages. They teach individual children.

So perhaps the best advice is also the simplest. Focus on what this child needs, regardless of whether the child is a boy or a girl.