As we discussed last week, there have been a lot of reports that boys are in
trouble in American education. Some people say efforts to improve education for
girls, especially in math and science, have resulted in a crisis for boys.
That belief has led to what a new report calls a growth industry of experts
advising how to make schools more "boy friendly." Yet that report, released this
week, suggests that the truth is far different from what people might think.
It says American boys in most cases are doing better than ever. "But girls
have just improved their performance on some measures even faster," it says. As
a result, girls have narrowed or closed differences with boys in some areas and
moved farther ahead of them in others.
The report is by Sara Mead at Education Sector, an independent research group
launched in January in Washington. She bases her arguments on tests used since
the early 1970s for a national measure of educational progress.
The report does agree that some groups of boys are in trouble. It says this
is true especially of Hispanics and blacks and those from poor families. But it
says closing racial and economic differences would help them more than reducing
differences between boys and girls.
Another concern is the large number of boys being identified with learning
and emotional disabilities. Also, the report says policymakers now recognize the
need to reform public high schools. Such changes should help boys as well as
girls.
But the report questions what it calls "simplistic" proposals to fix problems
for boys in American schools. One example given is expanding single-sex
schooling.
In 1998, only a few public schools offered any kind of single-sex learning
environment. Today, there are more than two hundred. The majority normally teach
boys and girls together but offer some single-sex classes. Findings on the
success of the idea have differed.
The Education Sector report calls for more study into the differences between
boys and girls and into the culture of schools. It says the research will help
teachers and parents better understand why gains for boys are not rising as fast
as for girls. But the report also advises the public not to worry too much, and
to be careful not to harm the gains that girls have made.
This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy
Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember.
