ABSTRACT
Many government reports about boys’ underachievement in English have focused on the lower attainment of boys in examinations. There are undoubtedly differences between boys’ and girls’ development and progress in reading and writing. However, as others have pointed out, the differences between the performance in English of boys from different socioeconomic groups are greater than the differences between boys and girls. This suggests that there is sometimes an oversimplification of the debate about gender and achievement in English and that it is not all boys who are underachieving but particularly those in lower socioeconomic groups.
