GCSE and A-Level courses form the core of British secondary education. Her I report an analysis of 12 years of exam scores (2001-2013), with a focus on sex differences. Although both boys’ and girls’ exam performance improved considerably between 2001 and 2010, the percentage of boys attaining A grades was consistently lower than that of girls in nearly all GCSE and A-Level subjects, and boys were underrepresented in most A-Level subjects. Further, there remains a strong division between the sexes in subject choice, with more boys in STEM topics and more girls in social sciences, care, and languages. The latter finding implies a failure of policies to increase girls’ participation in STEM fields; based on this, the talk discusses recommendations for future research and policies in regard to gender and education.
The International Education Studies Association
Supporting research in Education Studies
The International Education Studies Association
Supporting research in Education Studies