Examining the Gender Gap in Reading Performance One of the most comprehensive Canadian studies carried out in the last ten years on the subject of gender differences in reading development was published in 2002 by Phillips, Norris, Osmond and Maynard, who sought to track the relative reading performance of boys and girls from Grade 1 to Grade 6. They were seeking to determine the extent to which t [...] Further, the difference in the proportion of boys and girls in the average category decreased, and the proportions of boys and girls in the above-average category remained the same (Phillips et al, 2002). [...] Thus a reduced difference between boys and girls was achieved because of decreasing performance by girls in the junior grades (more girls in the below-average category) and an equalling of the proportion of boys and girls in the average category. [...] Phillips et al (2002) found that the middle of the distribution contained the least difference: for children who were in the average category in Grade 1, the probability that they would be average in Grade 6 was 0.76, and the proportions for boys and girls were nearly equal; the probability that average readers would become below-average was 0.13, and 0.11 that they would improve to above-average [...] For example, girls that shifted from the average to the below-average category could have been in the lower portion of the average category and were now in the upper portion of the below-average category.