I've been spending a lot of time recently trying to figure out why girls perform better than boys on almost every measure of academic achievement.

Looking at different kinds of achievement gaps is kind of our thing here at State of Opportunity. Racial gaps. Income gaps. Opportunity gaps.

The gender gap in school achievement isn't as big as either the racial or the economic gaps. But the gender gap is the most puzzling for me. I mean, achievement gaps based on income or race are disheartening, but at least I can understand why they exist (racism, disproportionate allocation of educational resources, societal inertia ... ). There's no easy explanation for why girls of all races and all economic backgrounds get better grades, do better on tests, graduate at higher rates and get more advanced degrees than boys.

One easy explanation some people like to believe is that girls are just smarter than boys. But, as we've written before, that explanation doesn't really hold up.

The chart above offers another explanation, though, admittedly, it's not all that easy to understand. The chart comes from a new book I've been reading, called The Rise of Women: The Growing Gender Gap in Education and What it Means for American Schools. I mentioned the book in my last post about the gender gap, but I think this chart is worth highlighting. You might need to click on the image to see a decent version.

Basically, the chart breaks down how likely a boy or girl is to graduate college based on when they were born, and how much education their parent received. There's also a column to show how the numbers change if the child's father was present at the age of 16.

So, you can see that boys today are at a disadvantage in almost every type of family.

Almost every type. The chart shows that boys and girls have an equal shot at college if both of their parents have been to college. If a father has some college, and the mother doesn't, boys are actually more likely to graduate college than girls.

So, why is this important?

For me, it shows that the reason boys are falling behind in school may not have anything to do with the boys. It has to do with the fathers.