BOYS; Being Intelligent is not Good Enough. Do NON-­‐Cognitiveskills Lead To A Difference In Secondary School Track Advice Between Boys And Girls?

This study looks at the difference in secondary school track advice between boys and girls, and to what extent cognitive and non-­‐cognitive skills determine this advice. Data about cognitive test scores and non-­‐cognitive skills from primary school children in The Netherlands was used to estimate what determines secondary school track advice. The results show a strong positive relation between cognitive skills –through test-­‐scores-­‐ and track advice. When I control for cognitive skills, girls get a higher secondary school track advice than boys. However when I further control for non-­‐cognitive skills, this effect disappears. This implies that non-­‐cognitive skills have a strong effect on determining secondary school track advice and can explain the effect of girls getting an advice for higher educational levels than boys. This effect is found for both immigrant children and native Dutch children, but is stronger for native Dutch children. The effect of girls getting a higher secondary school track advice, due to their higher scores on non-­‐cognitive skills, is evident in all years of the dataset but weakens a bit in the later years.