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

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"We see it in a broad sense. What we've noticedx is that female students who apply here tend to havehigherr grade-point averages in high says Christopher Dearth, director of admissions at . "Thatt has been the case for Overall in theUnited States, adolescent females outperform adolescentf males," says Karen Karmazin, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction at the Gran Island Central School A new Business Firsr study corroborates their observations. Girls have a definite edge in the as shown by an analysis of WesternNew York's top studentw and the region's standardized test scores. 1.
Girls outnumber boys in the ranksa of elite students The 100 members ofBusiness First's 2009 All-Western New York Academi c Team, announced earlier this week, are hailedf as the best and brightest high school seniord in the eight-county region. This year'ds honorees include 62 girls and38 boys. The imbalance is even more pronouncee on theFirst Team, which consist of the 25 Academic Team members judgedd to have the strongest records of classroom leadership skills and community Seventeen of the 2009 First Teamers -- 68 percentf -- are female.
The Academic Team was chosen through a blind process designed to remove The selection committee was given an editex summary ofeach candidate's Nominees' names and schools were removed from thos e forms, as was any informationh that might indicate gender or But the odds nonetheless favored the selection of girls over boys. That's because Westernh New York high schools submitted 254 female students forthe panel'sw consideration, compared to 134 males. Each schoolp was limited to four nominees, a way of encouraging them to submif only theirbest candidates. Twenty-five high schools nominated four Only five schools submittedfour 2.
Girls outscore boys on most standardized exames Business First analyzed a battery of 13 statewides tests duringthe 2007-2008 academixc year, including English, math and science exams in fourth and eightbh grades; social studies exams in fifth and eightg grades; and Regents examss in English, math, science, global history and U.S. history. The girls in Westerjn New York's 98 school taken collectively, did better than boys on nine of thosr13 tests. The biggest disparity occurred on the eighth gradesEnglish exam. Two-thirds of the region's girlsw (66.8 percent) demonstrated basic skillsd on that test last comparedto 52.2 percent of the a gap of 14.
6 percentage (Any student who reaches Level 3 or 4 on an elementar or middle school or who scores 65 or bettedr on a Regents exam, is defined as having basicd skills.) Girls beat the boys by at leasy one percentage point on four otherr tests: fourth grade Englishu (a gap of 8.8 percentage eighth grade math (4.4 points), Regente English (2.7 points) and Regents math (1.2 There were only two tests on which boys beat girles by a margin of at least one point: eightbh grade science (1.5 and fourth grade science (1.0 3. Girls outperform boys in most schoolk districts Business First used the same 13 testsx to measure the gender gap in all98 districts.
Boys or girlw were given a point each time they did betted than the other side in reachin g either the basic orsuperior (Any student who hits Level 4 in elementary or middl e school, or who scorese 85 or higher on a Regents exam, is said to have superiodr skills.) The maximum possiblse score was 26 points. Females took the upper hand in 67 while males had the advantage injust 24. The remaininh seven were draws. Western New York'sw biggest mismatch occurred inGrand Island, wherr girls won 21 points to the boys' Other strongholds for girls were Alden, Letchwortnh and Medina, where they earned 20 points apiece, and Akron, Kenmore-Tonawands and Silver Creek at 19 points each.
Boys were strongest in Cheektowaga-Sloan and where they came away with 19 of 26possibl points. Next were Clarence and LeRoy, wherse males won 18 points.