Reporter Peg Tyre explains why the challenges boys face in school need to be taken much more seriously.
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For nearly a decade now, the evidence has been accumulating: Boys, in general, are doing less well in school than girls. And slowly, parents, teachers and school administrators are waking up to the fact that they are going to need to do something about it.
But what exactly is going on with boys? A new study conducted by two economists from the University of Georgia casts some light on the subject. The researchers analyzed a massive amount of data that was collected by the federal government on 10,000 students as they moved from kindergarten to eighth grade.
When the researchers broke down the data by gender, they found that in many cases, classroom grades (subjective measurements awarded by teachers) were not well aligned to test scores. Troublingly, they found that boys, who scored well on tests (indicating mastery of the material being taught) did not get grades from teachers that reflected their abilities in three central subjects: reading, math, and science.
In other words, teachers favored girls.
The researchers then looked at the teachers’ assessment of students’ behavior, which was collected on this group of kids as they moved through school. The researchers found that teachers depressed the grades of boys who they thought didn’t show an “aptitude for learning.” They depressed the grades of boys, not because they didn’t learn the material, but because they didn’t do school well—comport themselves in class more like, well, girls. When the teachers perceived that boys exhibited an “aptitude toward learning,” they graded them on par and sometimes slightly better than their female counterparts.
The challenges boys face in school is a serious issue, but it has been slow to gain traction in education circles. For decades, any discussion about gender and education largely revolved around the troubles girls faced. A dozen or so years ago, a discussion about boys and their troubles at schools would be squashed by a quick quip about the gender balance of, say, Congress and corporate boardrooms.
Right now, boys are falling out of the kindergarten through 12th grade educational pipeline in ways that we can hardly imagine.
But the evidence that boys are struggling in school has deepened and become more worrisome. Right now boys are falling out of the kindergarten through 12th grade educational pipeline in ways that we can hardly imagine. They are expelled from preschool at five times the rates of girls. They are more likely than girls to be left back, identified as having ADHD and behavior problems. In middle school, they get more Cs and Ds. In high school, with the exception of sports, their involvement in extracurricular activities has declined. Boys are more like to drop out than girls.
It’s no wonder that almost more girls than boys attend college. When you look at government census date from 2010, among full-time college goers— 6.4 million of them are female and 5.1 million of them are male.
To be sure, the problems that beset boys in general do not challenge all boys—in every demographic there is a thin margin of high-performing boys (see above, Congress and corporate board rooms). But in general, while girls have all but caught up in math and science classes, boys in every demographic lag behind girls in reading and writing. Low-income boys and boys of color lag behind girls by almost every measure.
Boys often complain that they are treated differently than girls, particularly in elementary and middle school. This study confirms they are right. Some boys complain they are judged more harshly. Now we have evidence to support this as well. And grades matter. While a middle class boy who is getting so-so grades is supported by his educated parents to see himself as a “late-bloomer,” boys from less affluent families don’t have this luxury. They accept the teacher’s judgement on their abilities. Those boys—even ones who are master the material being taught—stop seeing themselves as college material.
Some schools have already taken steps to close the so-called “behavior” differential between boys and girls—the ways in which teachers (who are largely female in the elementary and middle school years) can misunderstand and devalue the ways boys learn—and how they express themselves while they are doing it.
In an article in The New York Times, I wrote about schools that were striving to end this kind of “grading for compliance”—or grading boys like defective girls—by giving all children two grades, one for handing in homework, appearing ready to learn and raising your hand, and the other for mastering the material.
The superintendent of schools in Potsdam, New York, Patrick Brady, who has been rolling out a revamped grading system in his 1,450-student district, said the new grading system would allow teachers to recognize academic strengths where they often are not discovered—among minority students, or students from poorer families, or boys—subgroups whose members may be unable or unwilling to fit in easily to the culture of school.
“We are getting rid of grade fog,” Mr. Brady said. “We need to stop overlooking kids who can do the work and falsely inflate grades of kids who can’t but who look good. We think this will be good for everyone.”
This innovative way of looking at grades won’t solve all the problems facing boys—the causes are complex—but as this new research shows, its wider adoption would be a step in the right direction.
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Originally published on TakePart.com
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photo by wwworks / flickr
About Peg Tyre
Joan…I would like to add that if white boys from two parent, middle class households can suffer so greatly what must it have been like and how must it be like for boy’s of color? How do they hold their heads up? Where do they look to feel like they fit in? Who speaks for them? If the POTUS can have a special committee for girls and women headed by his wife but tell boys in Chicago who play dodge ball with bullets daily that there isn’t much he can do help them, how do these boys overcome the perception that they are not deserving of help? The prez has kept an arms distance from the average black kid on the streets-unless they are Jay-Z.
Ogwriter-you raise a really poignant question…I don’t know who has the kids backs. I expect very little from politicians at the top and First Ladies always have their pet projects. Bless the Obama family, but they are politicians.
As far as heroes, fathers, or a Strong Voice to speak for boys, especially African American boys, we’ve made a mess. It’s the family structure and man-women dysfunction that is in shambles, not just African-American families, but white America too. Men and women need to sort out this gender-nonsense and get the family functional again.
It was in the 70s when divorce started separating men from of the homes and our family started dysfunctioning. No surprise in the 70s, women were indoctrinated with the “get away from the shackles of your husband, you could do so much better without him, motherhood is a waste of your talents.” I’m sure you heard the similar dogma. This is right about the same time when men were labeled as oppressors, instead of breadwinners.
I know the anti-male sentiment is worse in some areas like Chicago. Boys are not getting the respect and help at home or school. They’ve been taking their frustration to the streets for a long time. I’m certain girls are not getting enough help in many of these homes either.
Like mentioned earlier, several aggression studies suggest when men lose their status amongst peers, they become increasingly aggressive. Many boys have no respect at home and no respect at school. And girls receive preferential treatment. This little nugget of information about aggression is what educators and parents need to consider: their environment, before we write boys off into ‘disciplinary-problems’.
As far as a place to fit in, we’ve made a mess there too. Home and school are the two big places kids need belongingness and need to fit in, especially at home.
One response to Chicago shootings is $50K for grief and counseling sessions.
U.S. Department of Education Awards Nearly $50,000 to Help Chicago Public Schools Recover from Multiple Shootings
http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-awards-nearly-50000-help-chicago-public-schools-recover-
The challenges boys face in school is a serious issue, but it has been slow to gain traction in education circles. For decades, any discussion about gender and education largely revolved around the troubles girls faced. A dozen or so years ago, a discussion about boys and their troubles at schools would be squashed by a quick quip about the gender balance of, say, Congress and corporate boardrooms.
Not surprising. Showing concern for boys is often seen as an inherent attempt at silencing and minimizing girls.
I could go on about how funny it is this has been going on for decades (hell I remember such treatment in my elementary days) but now all of a sudden it’s being recognized but I guess I will skip that and go straight to saying how good it is that it finally being recognized.
Joan…The prez,after being pressured by a 45,000 signature petition,visited Chicago to speak to a group of young black boy’s and give a speech on gun control.He promptly morphed into Bill Cosby, telling the boy’s to stay away from gangs and drugs and that there wasn’t much else he could do for them.His performance was so poor and lacking in empathy even Melissa Harris Perry and her panel were critical of him. They mentioned how he said nothing about the affects of mass incarsceration,outsourcing,failed schools,generational underemployment,etc,on their families.
Joan..My favorite psychologist,Uri Bronfrenner believes in the ecological model of child development.Imagine circles within circles and in the center is family.Therein lies the most important influences, good and bad,on a childs development. The other circles represent institutions like church,school, government and so forth and are less influential on the child’s development. This theory seems to fit quite nicely with what is happening.
I’ll have to put him on my reading list. The basic family unit: therein lays most of the problems and the solutions. Family and home is where we have the greatest influence…and a lot of dysfunction.
We’ve been indoctrinating our kids they can have it all…a family and a career. Unfortunately we don’t teach about tradeoffs very well. We must give up one thing, to get something else: opportunity costs. To have a successful family, one’s career or personal life may suffer. To have a successful career and personal life, the family may suffer. Something will take a backseat. Each family has different priorities. Some put a higher value on family; others put a higher priority on careers. Both are important investments of our effort.
Look at Sandy Hook shooter. Here’s a suburban kid from a divorced home. The reports said he didn’t communicate with his father for 2 or 3 years and had a history of depressive symptoms. Why? I suspect the marriage was turbulent or hostile for years and the divorce was probably conflict-ridden too. The boy went over the edge and took his frustration out on school. The weird part is everybody jumped on stricter gun laws and totally missed the point. Columbine, same thing…stricter gun laws will fix boys. Chicago, same thing…stricter gun laws will fix boys. Security guards at school, that’ll fix boys. Teachers with guns, that’ll fix boys. Huh?? Have we all gone bananas?
Joan…I was slightly pleased, but guarded to hear the criticism of the prez on the MHP show as it represents a shift in the political winds by the administration and of some its supporters. Concurrent with this shift there was s also a story about how the prez is now going to focus on poor people, though again, guarded optimism should be employed when analyzing this point. After all, this supposed shift was based entirely on the fact that the prez mention poor people or poverty a total of four times in his state of the union address. Considering this, it hardly seems wise to fully embrace the administrations new found sensitivity to the needs of the poor. Uri is a researcher, so his work can be boring to read, but is a breath of fresh air in a genre made over by aggressive feminist politics of the 60′s.
ogwriter- I hesitated to comment on the 45,000 petition post, it stirs up a lot of resentment on my side too. If he tells kids in Chicago, LA, or DC to stay off drugs and stay away from gangs and offers no solutions. It’s patronizing.
Definitely guarded optimism. We’ll see what his strategy is for a solution on poverty. We have a lot more lower-income people as a result of the recession/depression.
Uri maybe a little dry for most but I’ll probably enjoy it, since I enjoy reading research studies and non-fiction. The circle of influence you mentioned—the family. It does not have the media appeal, which may a good thing…while the fems are still monologuing on the vagina, men can reclaim their seat at the table. Family: that’s what influences people and that’s what will drive change. Get men back in the home, raising their kids, loving wives, leading the families. I sound like a broken record.
Joan…But it’s a lovely melody,has a nice beat and I bet we dance to it!
ogwriter–on that note…here’s a brief article your creative writing prof may find valuable and it demonstrates the advancement of women in higher education. (sarcasm) Actually, the concept may be a great recruiting strategy to draw more boys into higher education, because the friend who sent this to me said he’d enroll in this class. (more sarcasm)
http://us.foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?page=26048&content=89306204&pageNum=-1