TY - JOUR T1 - Leaving Boys Behind JF - Journal of Human Resources JO - J Hum Resour SP - 549 LP - 579 DO - 10.3368/jhr.50.3.549 VL - 50 IS - 3 AU - Nicole M. Fortin AU - Philip Oreopoulos AU - Shelley Phipps Y1 - 2015/07/01 UR - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/50/3/549.abstract N2 - 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. ER -