PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Nicole M. Fortin
AU  - Philip Oreopoulos
AU  - Shelley Phipps
TI  - Leaving Boys Behind
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.50.3.549
DP  - 2015 Jul 01
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 549--579
VI  - 50
IP  - 3
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/50/3/549.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/50/3/549.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2015 Jul 01; 50
AB  - Using data from the “Monitoring the Future” surveys, this paper shows that from the 1980s to the 2000s, the mode of girls’ high school GPA distribution has shifted from “B” to “A,” essentially “leaving boys behind” as the mode of boys’ GPA distribution stayed at “B.” In a reweighted Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition of achievement at each GPA level, we find that changes to gender differences in post-secondary expectations, in particular expectations for attending graduate or professional school, are the most important factors accounting for this trend after controlling for school ability and they occur as early as the eighth grade.