Girls Catch the Boys in High School Math

For the past several decades, it's been common knowledge in America that high school boys were just plain better at math than high school girls. There's been an awful lot of research into the question "Why is it that high school girls aren't good at math?"A new study provides a thoroughly satisfying answer: They are.

Janet Hyde, a researcher from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, lead a study of 7 million standardized math test cores reported by gender. The scores were provided from ten different states, all having administered the same test as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act. The results? Girls are performing equally to boys after all.

So take it from a girl who refused to take Calculus in high school and went on to become a mechanical engineer: There is something for girls in math. And there's something for math in girls, too.

To read more about the study, visit http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/07/24/girls.math.ap/index.html

And in case you've ever felt like high school math was the most boring subject ever, check this out: http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf