Education Next Report...

Are Boys Shortchanged in K-12 Schooling?

After decades of concern that girls were being shortchanged in male-dominated schools, there are now some people worrying about whether boys are actually the ones in peril.

In the article “Gender Gap,” available online and appearing in the forthcoming Spring 2010 issue of Education Next, Richard Whitmire, author of the book Why Boys Fail, and Susan McGee Bailey, principal author of the 1992 report How Schools Shortchange Girls debate whether schools are now shortchanging boys.

Among the points considered by Whitmire and Bailey in the article:

1. Dropout and graduation rates, grades, and many test scores show boys faring poorly compared to girls.  Boys go to college at lower rates and then graduate at lower rates.
2. In 9th grade, where poorly-prepared boys first encounter the full force of the college readiness curriculum, there is a bulge of students who are held back to repeat the grade.  Nationally there are 113 boys repeating in 9th grade for every 100 girls. Among African Americans, there are 123 boys repeating in 9th grade for every 100 girls.
3. In Minnesota, 58 percent of bachelor’s degrees were earned by women, 69 percent of master’s degrees were earned by women, and 62 percent of associate’s degrees were earned by women.
4. A study tracking graduates of the Boston Public Schools found that, for every 167 women in four-year colleges, there were only 100 men.
5. A considerable number of boys get into selective private colleges due to gender preferences granted males by admissions officers. In November, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights announced an investigation into the practice.

However, the article also finds that:

1. Boys outperform girls in math and science on NAEP.
2. Women outpace men in BA, MA, and PhD completion, but are significantly behind men in MBAs and earn law and medical degrees at slightly lower rates than men.
3. Only 15 of the Fortune 500 companies are headed by female CEOs and women hold only 17 of 100 seats in the U.S. Senate

To read the article, click here.