Stillwater wonders why boys lag behind:
While boys continued to show strong levels of academic achievement, the study found male students were more likely to fail classes and were far more often identified for special intervention programs such as Targeted Services. "Perhaps what we are seeing is a gender 'motivational' gap as boys appear to be choosing not to demonstrate their talents and skills in the classroom," Balow said. Reasons for the disparity between the genders are not certain. Most researchers agree that there is no difference in intelligence between males and females, so they look instead to factors such as peer pressure, classroom rules and expectations, and even teacher attitudes to explain the disparity.