Girls + math: go figure

The math gender gap has closed, which is extremely good news for female elementary, middle- and high-school students hindered by a pervasive belief that girls are less adept at math than boys.

For a long time, the gender gap narrowed academic and career horizons for girls who felt they were working against the odds if they pursued academic and career opportunities in math and science.

Now their prospects are much brighter as old stereotypes about boys being smarter in math and science come tumbling down.

An analysis of 7 million students' test scores from grades two through 11 shows no difference in math achievement between girls and boys. The research published in the journal Science is the largest study of its kind and should help break down stereotypes about girls and math.

Sixteen years ago, Barbie dolls declared, "Math class is tough." Lawrence Summers, former president of Harvard University, fell into the same trap in 2005 when he pronounced that boys are more likely than girls to be math whizzes.

Pssshaw. The new data shows Barbie and Summers are off. Girls scored in the top 5 percent on tests almost as often as boys.

The promising news about girls and math must comes as no surprise to colleges and universities, which have been grappling with an altogether different trend: a male gender gap. Boys need help in a number of academic disciplines. They lag behind girls in participation in higher education.

Girls fare better in a range of classwork. That helps explain why many colleges and universities are filled with extremely competent young women and fewer male students. The latest figures show 57 percent of the nation's college students are female.

So the cheery news for girls and math is balanced by the reality that a lot more work needs to be done to prepare boys for the next step in education.