ResearchEducation & Skills
Boys, Girls, and Grades: Examining GPA and SAT Trends
Summary:
Academic performance during high school plays a critical role in future educational and career opportunities. But different measures reveal different patterns. Here, we examine gender differences across the full range of scores for SAT and GPA.
The gender gap in GPA is consistent across the distribution, with boys accounting for 2 out of 3 students in the bottom decile and only 1 in 3 students in the top decile. However, based on a new analysis of data provided by The College Board, the picture for SAT scores is very different. Boys account for the majority of students in both the top and bottom decile, consistent with an often-documented “males at the tails” tendency.
Key Takeaways:
- In high school, there are twice as many boys as girls in the bottom 10% (decile) of students ranked by GPA scores, and twice as many girls as boys in the top decile.
- Gender gaps in GPA can be seen across subject areas, including math, science and CTE.
- Gender gaps are much less marked on the SAT, with boys overrepresented both in the top decile (57%) and the bottom decile (56%). Boys outperform girls on the math portion of the SAT, especially at the top of the scoring distribution, accounting for 61% of the top decile
- On the verbal skills section of the SAT, there is no gender gap in the top decile, while boys account for 57% of students scoring in the bottom decile
- The average GPA for girls is 3.23, compared to 3.0 for boys, while the average SAT score for girls is 1023, compared to 1032 for boys.
GPA and gender
Girls have long had an edge over boys when it comes to grades. In 2019, the average GPA for girls was 3.23 compared to 3.0 for boys. While SAT scores can be critical in measuring content knowledge and academic aptitude, it is GPA that is often considered the better predictor of college success and later life outcomes, primarily because it also measures a range of skills, attitudes, and behaviors—like being organized or punctual— that are important for success in school and beyond.
To illuminate these differences, we analyze the grades of high school boys and girls using the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, a nationally representative study of 23,000 high schoolers that followed students from 9th grade through postsecondary education.
Figure 1
DATA NOTEWhile the NAEP High School Transcript Study (2019) provides more recent data and focuses exclusively on high school graduates, we use the HSLS:09 dataset because it offers a more comprehensive view of GPA distribution. Unlike NAEP, HSLS:09 includes transcripts from both graduates and the approximately 9% of sampled students who dropped out before graduation. By including dropouts, HSLS:09 allows us to capture the academic experiences of students who leave school early, a population that is often overlooked but critical for understanding broader patterns of educational attainment. This results in slightly lower average GPAs—2.7 for girls and 2.4 for boys—compared to NAEP’s 3.23 and 3.00.
Across the GPA distribution boys are much more likely to have the lowest GPAs. They comprise 67% of the lowest decile but only 34% of the highest decile.
Figure 2
DATA NOTEGPA decile cuts were estimated using the HSLS restricted data via the NCES PowerStats platform. Due to smaller sample sizes, estimates of gender proportions within deciles are less precise and average approximately ± 3.5pp. For grades in CTE courses, PowerStats cannot differentiate the 9th and 10th deciles because the 9th decile GPA range is 3.8–4.0. The proportions shown for both therefore reflect the top 20% of students.
The gender dynamic is consistent if we look at grades across subject areas. Again, we find a larger share of boys at the lower tail, with boys and girls similarly likely to have mid-range GPAs, and boys less likely to have a high GPA. While boys appear to do slightly better in math and slightly worse in English, these differences are small and not statistically significant. While individual estimates should be interpreted with caution due to smaller sample sizes, the overall trends remain clear.
SAT and gender
Approximately 3.1 million people aged 16-24 graduated high school in 2023. Of those, a large portion took the ACT (1.4 million) and SAT (1.9 million). Here we focus on the SAT. Overall, gender differences in combined SAT scores are less lopsided. Boys score slightly higher at the average (1032 vs. 1023). They also make up a slight majority of test takers in both the highest (57%) and the lowest (56%) deciles.
Figure 3
However, the relative symmetry here masks the better performance of boys on the math portion of the SAT–where they receive 61% of the top-decile SAT scores–and their relatively lower scores on the reading and writing portions of the SAT–where they account for half of the top scorers. For every 100 girls who score between 680-800 on the math portion of the SAT, there are 156 boys.
Figure 4
Figure 5
As mentioned above, high school GPA has typically been seen as a better guide to future academic success, though more recent evidence suggests a stronger predictive role for SAT, at least in more selective colleges and universities.
It matters when boys fall behind
A closer look at gender differences in high school academic performance reveals some striking contrasts. Boys get worse grades than girls: they are significantly overrepresented at the lower end of the GPA distribution and underrepresented at the top. On the SAT, however, there is much more gender balance, reflecting some relative strength for boys in math alongside relative weaknesses in reading and writing.
The reasons for these gaps are widely debated. Some scholars point to selection effects driving differences in SAT scores, while others highlight the role of ‘non-cognitive factors‘ or teacher bias in shaping GPA differences. It’s likely that these patterns result from a complex combination of biological, family, and school-related factors. Even if the exact causes remain uncertain, these differences matter.
They shed important light on the impact of different college admissions policies, for example: recent studies have found that moving to a test-optional approach increases female enrollment and reduces male enrollment. More broadly, academic performance shapes future opportunities, in terms of both college and career.
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