Our team, comprising researchers from Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, welcomes this inquiry into the factors driving educational attainment. We submit this response outlining our research on gender differences in developmental and educational outcomes over the life course, the factors contributing to variation in educational attainment between boys and girls, and directions for future research, including ongoing research programs undertaken by our team.
Our studies using nationally representative and population-based administrative datasets show that males tend to perform better in numeracy-related subjects, while females outperform males in most non-numeracy subjects, with these gender gaps generally widening as students progress through school. We also find that females outperform males in overall academic attainment at the end of secondary school and in post-school educational outcomes. In addition, females outperform males at the lower end of the distribution for non-numeracy test scores and ATAR results, whereas the male advantage in numeracy appears to be driven primarily by higher-performing students.
Our research has also identified several factors contributing to variation in educational attainment between boys and girls, including early childhood characteristics, children’s time use and school sector choice, and socioeconomic factors.
While our studies identify a range of factors—some of which are novel in the international literature—that help explain gender gaps in educational attainment and improve understanding of gender-based developmental disparities, thereby providing evidence to inform interventions aimed at improving outcomes for both genders, several limitations remain and suggest directions for future research.