If anything, the reverse is true. It is boys, not girls, who have fallen behind. On the recently released NAEP fourth-grade reading test, girls outscored boys. In fact, girls outscore boys on all three grade levels for which NAEP tests reading. This is only one of many areas in which boys lag behind girls in academic achievement.
Girls outscore boys in reading.
By twelfth grade, the reading gap favors girls by 14 points . 3 Girls outscore boys in writing. On the 1998 Writing Report Card for the Nation , girls had higher average scores than boys at all three grade levels tested. In fact, there were twice as many girls scoring in the proficient and advanced category than boys. Conversely, twice as many boys scored below the basic level in all three grades.