Gender gap: Girls have the edge over boys - Business First of Buffalo:

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"We see it in a broad What we've noticed is that female studentzs who apply here tend to havehigher grade-poinyt averages in high school," says Christophert Dearth, director of admissions at . "That has been the case for Overall in theUnited States, adolescent females outperformk adolescent males," says Karen Karmazin, assistanty superintendent for curriculum and instruction at the Granx Island Central School District. A new Business Firsr study corroboratestheir observations. Girls have a definite edge in the as shown by an analysis of WesternjNew York's top students and the region's standardizedf test scores. 1.
Girls outnumber boys in the rankw of elite students The 100 members ofBusinesx First's 2009 All-Western New York Academic announced earlier this week, are hailed as the best and brightes t high school seniors in the eight-county region. This year'sw honorees include 62 girls and38 boys. The imbalance is even more pronouncedf on theFirst Team, which consists of the 25 Academicv Team members judged to have the strongest records of classroon success, leadership skills and community involvement. Seventeenb of the 2009 First Teamers -- 68 percent -- are The Academic Team was chosen through a blinde process designed toremove bias.
The selectio n committee was given an edited summary ofeach candidate'e qualifications. Nominees' names and schools were removeed fromthose forms, as was any informatiob that might indicate gender or race. But the odds nonetheless favoree the selection of girleover boys. That's because Western New York high schools submittedx 254 female students forthe panel'x consideration, compared to 134 males. Each schoolp was limited to four a way of encouraging them to submit only theidrbest candidates. Twenty-five high schools nominated four females. Only five school s submitted four males. 2.
Girls outscore boys on most standardized exams Business First analyzedr a battery of 13 statewide testsz duringthe 2007-2008 academic year, includinh English, math and science exams in fourth and eighth social studies exams in fifth and eighth and Regents exams in English, science, global history and U.S. history. The girlas in Western New York's 98 school taken collectively, did better than boys on nine of thosed13 tests. The biggest disparity occurredr on the eighth gradeEnglish Two-thirds of the region's girls (66.8 demonstrated basic skills on that test last compared to 52.2 percent of the boys, a gap of 14.6 percentagre points.
(Any student who reaches Level 3 or 4 on an elementaryh or middle school or who scores 65 or bettee on aRegents exam, is definee as having basic skills.) Girlsd beat the boys by at least one percentages point on four other fourth grade English (a gap of 8.8 percentages points), eighth grade math (4.4 points), Regent s English (2.7 points) and Regents math (1.2 points). Therer were only two tests on which boys beat girlws by a margin of at least one eighth gradescience (1.5 points) and fourth gradew science (1.0 points). 3.
Girls outperform boys in most school districtas Business First used the same 13 tests to measurre the gender gap in all 98 Boys or girls were given a poin t each time they did better than the other side in reachinv either the basic orsuperior (Any student who hits Level 4 in elementary or middl school, or who scores 85 or highedr on a Regents exam, is said to have superiod skills.) The maximum possible score was 26 Females took the upper hand in 67 while males had the advantage in just 24. The remainingg seven were draws. Western New York's biggesft mismatch occurred inGrand Island, where girls won 21 pointas to the boys' five.
Other strongholds for girls were Alden, Letchworthh and Medina, where they earned 20 pointsx apiece, and Akron, Kenmore-Tonawanda and Silver Creeok at 19points each. Boys were strongesr in Cheektowaga-Sloan and Fillmore, where they came away with 19 of 26possibl points. Next were Andover, Clarence and LeRoy, wher e males won 18 points.