Growing evidence suggests that contrary to popular belief, schools mostly do not generate achievement gaps in cognitive skills but, rather, reflect the inequalities that already exist. In the case of socioeconomic status, exposure to school often reduces gaps. Surprisingly little is known, however, about whether this pattern extends to gender gaps in cognitive skills. We compare how gender gaps in math and reading change when children are in school versus out (in the summer) among over 900,000 U.S. children. We find that girls learn faster than boys when school is out (in both reading and math), but this advantage is completely eliminated when school is in session. Compared to the family environment, schools act as a relatively standardizing institution, producing more similar gendered patterns in learning.

越来越多的证据表明，与普遍的看法相反，学校大多不会在认知技能方面产生成就差距，而是反映了已经存在的不平等。就社会经济地位而言，接触学校通常会缩小差距。然而，令人惊讶的是，关于这种模式是否延伸到认知技能的性别差距，我们知之甚少。我们比较了超过 900,000 名美国儿童在上学和放学（夏天）时数学和阅读方面的性别差距如何变化。我们发现，放学时女孩比男孩学得更快（在阅读和数学方面），但这种优势在放学时就完全消失了。与家庭环境相比，学校作为一个相对标准化的机构，在学习中产生了更多相似的性别模式。