Reading Scores and the Gender Gap in College Enrollment

Inside Higher Ed

Madeline St. Amour

June 10, 2020

New research shows that boys’ poor reading skills in adolescence and social attitudes about women attending college could help explain why fewer men than women enroll in higher education.

Researchers at the University of Missouri and the University of Essex in the United Kingdom analyzed postsecondary education enrollment data between 2011 and 2017 from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, national reading scores for 15- and 16-year-olds from the Program for International Student Assessment and social attitudes toward women pursuing university educations from the World Values Survey for their report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, according to a news release.

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