Education: Who Is Really Better at Math?

Chicago study renews the debate over boys'and girls'ability

It is well known that teen-age boys tend to do better at math than girls, that male high school students are more likely than their female counterparts to tackle advanced math courses like calculus, that virtually all the great mathematicians have been men. But why? Are women born with less mathematical ability? Or does society's sexism slow their progress?

In 1980 two Johns Hopkins University researchers tried to settle the eternal nature/ nurture debate. Julian Stanley — who is well respected for his work with precocious math students of both sexes — and Camilla...