Are Girls Better Readers Than Boys? Which Boys? Which Girls?

Abstract

Using data from the reading component of the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (N = 113,050), the effects of gender and curricular track for nine sub ‐ scores of reading achievement were investigated. Only students indicating that they did not receive additional programming support were included in the analysis. Gender accounted for less than one per cent of variance in reading achievement. Gender differences for each curricular track were in the close ‐ to ‐ zero and small range. The results suggest that any observed differences may be of little practical consequences, and that the notion of under ‐ achievement of boys’ reading achievement has been greatly overstated. Key words : reading achievement, gender, curricular track, Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test Utilisant des donnees tirees du volet lecture du Test de competences linguistiques de l’Ontario au secondaire (N = 113 050), l’auteure analyse les effets du genre et de la repartition en classes homogenes sur neuf sous ‐ scores ayant trait a la lecture. Seuls les eleves ayant indique qu’ils n’avaient pas recu un soutien supplementaire ont ete inclus dans l’analyse. Le sexe representait moins de 1 % de l’ecart dans les resultats. Les differences selon le sexe pour chaque groupement selon les aptitudes s’approchaient de zero ou etaient tres faibles. Les resultats semblent indiquer que toute difference observee peut n’avoir que peu de consequences pratiques et que la notion de sous ‐ performance des garcons en matiere de lecture a ete grandement exageree. Mots cles : rendement en lecture, genre, repartition en classes homogenes, ecoles secondaires de l’Ontario