Girls read better than boys — in most any language.

That’s among the conclusions reached through international testing of students for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The organization’s report, released Tuesday, includes results from two-hour tests administered to 500,000 students spanning 65 countries and more than 70 economies from all points of the globe: from Albania to Singapore to Finland and the United States and beyond.

Overall, in every country tested, girls scored higher on reading than boys did — a difference, on average, that would be “equivalent to one year of schooling,” organization officials said. “The gender gap has not improved in any country since 2000, and (has) widened in France, Israel, Korea, Portugal and Sweden.”

The gap isn’t quite so wide in the United States, according to the report: Only Colombia, Chile, Peru, Azerbaijan and the Netherlands had smaller scoring gaps between boys and girls in reading. Among countries hitting the average were Switzerland, Japan, Ireland, Germany and Shanghai-China; the biggest gaps between boys and girls were recorded in Albania, Bulgaria and Lithuania.

In case anyone’s keeping score: On average, boys outperform girls in math, according to the report, but the scoring gap is less than one-third of the distance between the sexes in reading.

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Teachers and administrators are busy renegotiating certain terms of this year’s work agreement in the Lawrence school district, and a federal mediator has been called in to help.

In case you’re wondering, Peggy McNieve, the mediator, is on the federal payroll.

“She is employed by the federal government,” said Frank Harwood, the district’s chief operations officer and lead negotiator. “We don’t pay anything, including travel. We call her, set up a time that she’s available, and it’s all taken care of.”

McNieve’s work is set to resume at 5 p.m. today at district headquarters, 110 McDonald Drive.

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Langston Hughes School is the first school in Kansas to sign up for the “I Gave 50 Cents” campaign, an effort to raise money for a private memorial to honor soldiers who have died in the line of duty in operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, an organizer said.

Tonya Evans, parent of two Langston Hughes students and executive director of the U.S. Fallen Heroes Foundation, announced the school’s involvement Tuesday. She may be reached at tonya@fallenheroesfoundation.com.

— Are you aware of something special happening in or coming to area schools? Let me know, at mfagan@ljworld.com.