ABSTRACT
Group differences in educational outcomes, and by inference in learning abilities and intelligence, are hotbutton topics, and they should be, as long as the heat they are generating is also shedding light on the complex array of variables that contribute to our understanding of how people learn and helping us find ways to enhance learning. To the many critics who object to any study or discussion of sex differences in cognitive abilities or academic achievement, I ask this question: "What are the alternatives to comparing how girls and boys learn and their (average) academic achievement?" Everyone could pretend that there are no group differences, an option that will never narrow the achievement gap or advance our understanding of individual differences in learning. We (the general public and professionals together) could insist on only using tests that are written so that they never show any group differences, thereby ensuring that we are always testing at the lowest levels, or at least losing potentially important and interesting information about testing or learning or both-again, not an appealing strategy because educators and psychologists need to understand why there are group differences ifwe strive to raise everyone to as high a level of achievement as possible.
