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
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
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,… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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.
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.
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
soullite…I have a creative writing Prof who has turned our class into a platform for her feminists politics.The obvious friction between her and I is mounting daily. Most frustrating is her method of pursuing her agenda, which has been to slowly and with deception introduce certain feminists tropes and banners items. This last Friday she introduced something from the Vagina Monologues and asked for seven people to read a part asking, ” I need 7 people to read…” She then promptly went around the room and hand picked 7 women to read. She purposely finds stories and poems to read… Read more »
Tim—provocative question, that’s awesome. AA and reverse discrimination go hand in hand. AA has been defined as “those actions appropriate to overcome the effects of past or present practices, policies, or other barriers to equal employment opportunity.” The particular focus of AA is improving the employment opportunities of groups that, historically, have been victims of discrimination: women, ethnic minorities, disabled persons, or veterans. Under AA, males would need to be re-classified as a ‘new protected group’ with documented historical discrimination. Reverse discrimination cases are a response to unfair AA actions. Commonly when an employee alleges disparate treatment, believing he was… Read more »
Affirmative action won’t address the root of the problem: Society just doesn’t want to address boys problems or to do so at the expense of girls. Many, uh, “people” believe that what is occuring now they deserve due to how rough girls and women had it and still have it.
Until we change this mindset (which is doubtful as it was engrained in the public concious for decades), no amount of adhesive will be adequate.
Should there be affrimative action for boys in schools and college?
Eagle35 – I agree with what you said about patriarchy. I’m in the US, I can see the decline too. It is possible the UK has more residual patriarchy, then the US.
As far as the minority issue and males, feminism has had a history of racism. This is another reason I disassociate from the label. My belief is that men, of all colors, have been socially disenfranchized. Most men are in the same in boat.
John: “My own feeling is that teachers attitudes towards boys are just a reflection of a wider problem within modern western culture which, despite still being largely patriarchal, has somehow come to have an overall negative view of masculinity.” It’s not patriarchal in the slightest. If you’re using the actual meaning of partiarchy which is “Role of the father”, then a culture that automatically awards custody of children to the mother, that ostracizes and provides little services for male abuse survivors (sexual or physical) compared to women, abbets girls and women to hit or bully their boyfriends/spouses or boys in… Read more »
I don’t think the Fems here have taken into account to degree to which this generates hostility, not only to their ideology itself, but to their much-treasured concept of ‘patriarchy’. You are never going to convince most men that we live in a ‘patriarchy’ when our formative experiences happened in an environment that is overwhelmingly dominated by women, run for women, and where those women never miss an opportunity to drill into our heads that girls are ‘better’ than boys — even if it only comes as a result of every female teacher constantly saying that ‘women can do anything’,… Read more »
I think this is a really interesting article, but I’m not sure how effective the solutions being proposed are likely to be. Here in the UK, and in most of the developed world, the gender gap emerged at about the same time and has grown at a similar rate. This suggests that any adjustments made within the US education system are unlikely to get to the root of the problem. My own feeling is that teachers attitudes towards boys are just a reflection of a wider problem within modern western culture which, despite still being largely patriarchal, has somehow come… Read more »
In all fairness there have been some great people who have advanced women and have brought positive change: especially the unsung heroes–the moms and dads who have raised children. Unfortunately, we’ve seen the slight fall of men with the rise women. I’m not on a warpath against feminism. I simply disassociate from it, because there’s too much pollution associated with the label. I hope more people do the same. As you stated perfectly, we are not going to fix the US education system by putting a small bandage on a global gender issue. Progress will manifest, when men stand firm… Read more »
Unfortunately, we’ve seen the slight fall of men with the rise women. Actually I’d say that men and women were both in need of some rising but in all the hoopla of looking out for women first it was believed that men didn’t need to rise. I don’t think these problems with boys in school magically just started 15 or so years ago. However it wasn’t noticed because even the slightest mention of it was taken out of context as an attack on women (I’m sure there would be some claim of it being a distraction or some shit like… Read more »
Tim, Danny— I agree with both you…masculinity is tough to define and it should in the man’s hands. Masculinity and men were not monolithic 50 years ago either, but we had more defined gender roles …today the gender roles are less defined. Teachers and parents have always influenced the male behavior, but empowered women have influencing the influencers and redefining acceptable male-behavior: for better and worse. Soullite mentioned something regarding male-behavior in schools, he said “I remember calling out teachers for favoring the female students several times in my youth. It just got me labeled as ‘trouble-maker.’” 50 years ago,… Read more »
Outstanding post.
Men are very often afraid of lawsuits, destroyed reputations and ruined careers from angry feminists – of both sexes – that await any resistance to the status quo from men. But I am starting to see that if the current situation is to be addressed, let alone stopped, then that fear has to be challenged.
So thanks for the challenging post.
Tim–men, employers, and teachers are afraid of lawsuits. No one wants to step on someone’s rights, but people (especially women) can damage a reputation just with a whisper or suggestion. Archy even mentioned it above. He’d make a great teacher, but…
There is a groundswell of these themes about ‘good men’, fathers, roles, and respect. Men are feeling disposable across this globe; obviously our gender-nonsense is on full tilt. I’m glad to learn from you guys. Some of you regulars on this site really add dimension and help me think…thank you for insight.
No – masculinity is not something that is ‘redefined’. That is like saying the sun and the wind must be redefined because they do not fit in with our cultural expectations and demands. It is pure fantasy.
The destruction of men is going on full-tilt because boys and young men are ashamed of their masculine identity. That is how they have been taught and they have learned their lessons well.
“I don’t think the answer is to blame feminism.”
If feminist actions did cause issues for boys would it be to blame? Some people are often willing to blame feminism for positive changes such as helping the girls but seem quite reluctant that maybe those measures to help girls were implemented wrong and actually harmed the boys. Since feminism is not a monolith, if you can assign the positive changes to feminism then surely can you also assign the blame for negative changes?
What I’d like to know is are boys, on average, doing worse than they used to? Or is it just that girls have been doing better and better? I keep reading stats that only mention their scores in relation to girls, but never in relation to how they did in the past. Anybody know where to find more info on that?
Ray– I guess it depends on the subject matter in question and country.
National Endowment for the Arts does a good job on literacy and comparing rates over time http://www.nea.gov/news/news07/trnr.html
U.S. Department of Education, has some historical trends found at National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics has historical workplace trends.
Oh, and I also see this as the cause behind the frequently peddled myth that “girls mature faster than boys”.
Crap. Girls conform to schools better than boys because it is made for them.
There is a real problem with this in Australia as well, and unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Each year for the last decade when the HSC (our SAT) results come out, newsreaders (always female) gloat that “the girls are beating the boys”. How can we fix something that is thought of as a gloat worthy subject rather than a problem? My wife is a kindergarden teacher here, and from what she tells me of the other teachers things aren’t improving any time soon. She has told me a number of times “school is not made for… Read more »
I have been thinking this for quite some time. If things keep going the way they are , soon colleges will be 90% women and 10% men.
What will be the story then. I can see the headlines now
“National Organization of Women study proves that college ratios are fine, 90% female attendance is a raw number and is meaningless because we have factored in the historical oppression of women”
This article resonates with me. Even though I ended up attending and graduating from a four year university, I can relate to the feelings of frustration and demonization that young boys experience during their early years in elementary school. I was put on Ritalin in order to make me more “focused” (ie. less male energy), and I constantly had the “girls are smarter” line shoved down my throat. It starts to get better for guys starting in late middle school and high school, but elementary schools, without question, favor girls. I’m now looking forward to an article that lists “female… Read more »
Don’t forget “girls mature faster.” Maybe in body but not in mind. I was told this many times as an excuse not to let many boys into peer leadership positions. Personally the women I know in my age group (24-28) have many more problems being an adult (self responsible) than the men. Though i do think that it is expected of men, and that women are still viewed as needing to be protected or catered to.
So, wait. We tailored the entire education system to girls, and we’re surprised when boys are failing in it?
That’s one of the reasons why I was fortunate to have a full time stay at home wife/mother for my kids and didn’t use pre-school or nursery schools. The only ones that influenced m kids were people I personally knew and most were family.
Wow Joan … that was great and I agree with everything you said. We are trying to eliminate some so called stereotypes which are not stereotypes at all but are instead, who these kids are.
Out of curiosity, do you see feminism as part of the problem where they have contributed to this problem?
They are stereotypes, in that they might a strong minority, or more boys than girls (or vice versa), but they’re never universal. It’s stupid to ban it all the way it’s been said though (no tea parties at all, for no one, instead of for everyone-who-wants-it-whatever-sex-they-are). If the stereotypes were universally true, no boy ever would succeed in our current system, and no girl ever would have in the older regime (when they were discouraged from doing any higher education, because homemaker doesn’t need more than high school), they’re just tendencies however. Punishing the outliars (the little boy that wants… Read more »
Tom–not only do I see feminism as part of problem, I see feminism as the architect of many of these problems. Women’s empowerment movement, IMAO, has gone too far into shaping behavior. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I support equal rights, but I disassociate myself from feminism. The two concepts are very different. Simply because I have equal rights with men, does not mean I AM a man, nor should I be expected to behave like a man, motivate like a man, compete like a man, or develop like a man. Nor should men be expected… Read more »
“Simply because I have equal rights with men, does not mean I AM a man, nor should I be expected to behave like a man, motivate like a man, compete like a man, or develop like a man.” If you’re not using “man” to mean “adult” (when man-up is often “don’t act like a child”), then I truly wonder what you’re comparing it to. Most stereotypes about men come from a small proportion of men, same for women. NONE are universal. Even those about masturbation. So it’s not like women could be encouraged to act like some objectively masculine manly… Read more »
Schala–I’m not trying to stereotype all men or all women into two neat genders…because there is tremendous variety. Much of the recent research indicates, men and women are fundamentally different. Take for example several aggression studies conducted between 2009-2012. Studies suggest when men lose their status amongst peers, they become increasingly aggressive. Can we assume everyone will become aggressive? No, that’s how we get into trouble in the first place. I think you understand that clearly. But, there are certain things educators and parents could learn from the aggression studies. Instead of medicating boys who show aggression or giving them… Read more »
The vast majority of gender studies that find real differences are on the order of “40% of men, but 60% women do/want/like x”, where 60% of men and 40% of women don’t.
As such there is huge overlap, and this doesn’t mean whatever x is should be considered naturally womanly.
This is not a “new” phenomenon. The AAUW’s (link below) manufactured report is just one example where political feminist ideology ran counter to factual evidence, yet still succeeded. http://www.amazon.com/How-Schools-Shortchange-Girls-Education/dp/1569248214 Christina Hoff Sommers spoke at length and in her book on the misguided research and political lobbying that got us here today. The only curious leftover is how all of this could possibly exist in a system of Patriarchy: where I am treated as a second class citizen….yet somehow receive better education!! I’m thinking someone needs to perform a full scale audit on the Patriarchy – its privilege pistons seem to… Read more »
elissa … great point.
The only curious leftover is how all of this could possibly exist in a system of Patriarchy: where I am treated as a second class citizen….yet somehow receive better education!!
I’ve been asking myself this for a long time.
We’re actually living in a kyriarchy.
The only curious leftover is how all of this could possibly exist in a system of Patriarchy: where I am treated as a second class citizen….yet somehow receive better education!! Generally the answer to that is “benevolent sexism”. You see elissa the fact that girls are/were favored in school isn’t a manifestation of sexism where girls are privileged over boys. No it’s that the system was so sexist against girls that it gives them a free pass on their behavior. (Not to be confused with times when boys are favored over girls. In that case it’s sexism and male privilege.)… Read more »
I appreciate you calling out the problem, but the reality is that the education system is performing exactly as designed. Since the early 80s, f the public education system has been consciously restructured to achieve optimum female college entry. Boys, their success and growing lack of it , has been at best a non-issue and in most cases an acceptable loss. I just don’t see the possibility of much meaningful change. From the national to the local level, the current educational administration system have been so completely indoctrinated in the fundamental, unquestionable, fact that girls success is the overriding objective… Read more »
Let’s talk ADHD ……According to a study back in 2010 “Nearly 1 million children in the United States are potentially misdiagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder simply because they are the youngest — and most immature — in their kindergarten class, according to new research by a Michigan State University economist.” .. Couple this with boys being diagnosed with ADHD 3 times that of girls, boys enter the educational system at a clear disadvantage. Now let’s add this “…..boys are referred more commonly by teachers,” says Montague, whose research focuses on learning disabilities and emotional/behavioral disorders” I commend the superintendant… Read more »
Rick — I recognize teachers incorporate diverse learning styles for kinesthetic learners, auditory learners, haptic learners, visual learners, etc. But education appears to be biased towards females and female educators are, more or less, arbiters for ‘acceptable’ behavior. Boys’ behavior is no longer acceptable in classrooms, on recess, in the hallways, after school, etc. Despite the research which indicates male and female behaviors are different. For all intents and purposes, female teachers (and their college textbooks) are shaping the classroom, curriculum, testing, and grading around females. We know men and women different…we develop differently, we behave differently, we compete differently,… Read more »
“But education appears to be biased towards females and female educators are, more or less, arbiters for ‘acceptable’ behavior.”
Joan, the word you ar elooking for is “gynonomrativty” and it is a problem especially in lelementary school. Gynonormativity is not inherently bad; sometimes it is the approrpiate norm. But in a classroom setting it is just plain sexist.
And for the record, there are female teachers who for whatever reason recognize it as a problem and manage just fine to avoid it. So it is possib. And it should frankly be a criterion for hiring and retention.
What are the reasons that teachers in elementary schools have mostly been female throughout the 20th century? Why was it not seen as a job for men? Why now is it hard to get teachers period? Pay is one thing, cause it’s extremely low in public schools and hiring? Man, I’d love for a lot of things to be required for better hiring and retention but pay and hours and support are on the top of that list. Public schools have been gutted, but not by feminism. Look more towards the desire over the past 20 years to shrink govt… Read more »
Schools have recently been gutted even more by pedophilia hysteria, I was told I would be a good teacher but I refuse to ever do it largely over the hysteria and the pay is also not worth it whilst dealing with kids. Quite frankly, who’d wanna be a teacher?
That’s the spirit!!
I don’t quite think he was trying to pin this on feminism.
What does any of that have to do with the price of tea in china? This isn’t about you. It’s not about the plight of women way back in 1929, or 1969, or ever. This is about boys, right now. Women don’t get a pass for this. And yeah, to some extent all of this ‘Schrodinger’s rapist’ talk is to blame for this. Men are seen as potential monsters, so men aren’t trusted as teachers. They are watched by other faculty members. Students can make claims about them with impunity. They are made to feel like perverts and freaks just… Read more »