Why Boys Fail

Important notice: Whyboysfail.com moving to Education Week

richard — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:38:08 +0000

Starting today, my blog will appear here: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/whyboysfail/

Why? I’m hoping the new home at Education Week will bring more exposure to the topic. I also think it’s telling that Education Week considers this a topic worthy of a single blog. Slowly, this issue is evolving from a controversy — are boys really in academic trouble? — to an acknowledged problem in need of a solution.

So come visit at the new site!

Economists weigh in on gender gap issues

richard — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:03:13 +0000

Papers at the American Economic Association explore which would be more likely to lure women into male-dominated professions such as the sciences: altering public stereotypes or hiring more female faculty in those specialities? I won’t spoil the surprise found in Inside Higher Education. And then there’s the issue of whether mentoring women in academia works. Again, I won’t spoil the surprise.

This might lure more men into college

richard — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 13:20:40 +0000

The increasing emphasis on focusing college majors on career goals may make liberal arts majors (that includes me) cringe, but in the end it’s likely to convince more men to enroll and graduate.

Some boy-raising advice..

richard — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:12:41 +0000

… from the author of The Way of Boys, by psychologist Anthony Rao. This column appears in the Naples News.

Sally Ride is absolutely right …

richard — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:07:41 +0000

… we do need more women going into math and science studies and careers. That should be a national economic priority. What goes unsaid, because it would create controversy, is that one reason this is such an important priority is the dominance of women in higher education. Women earn nearly 58 percent of the bachelor’s degree but they continue to shun the fields Ride talks about (roughly a quarter, at most, of those degrees go to women). Sure, there are plenty of men still earning PhDs in computer science, etc., but how many are from the United States? And how many will continue to stay in this country to fuel our economic competitiveness?

By all measures, high school girls are being well prepared in math and science. We can’t continue to use that as an excuse. The places to focus are the first few years of college when so many of these talented women opt instead for sociology or clinical psychology.

This is where the disconnect kicks in…

richard — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:49:00 +0000

Because the White House, Congress and Wall Street are run mostly by men, there’s no reason to worry about guys, right? That’s the argument made by national feminist groups, and there’s a lot of gut logic behind it.

And how about literacy skills? If there are only 29 female writers on the top 100 writers list from Publishers Weekly, then why should we worry about guys and literacy?

I see things differently, from the ground level. If graduating college classes are gender imbalanced, we have a problem in the future. And if boys are falling behind in elementary school because of faltering literacy skills, we have a problem in the future.

Does it matter that the very brightest writers, shrewdist business leaders and most talented politicians happen, at this point in time, to be predominately male? Only if you’re making an argument that the boy troubles can be safely ignored.

I’m not sure this is the right approach, but …

richard — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:36:31 +0000

… I’d to see the U.S. Department of Education at least acknowledge the gender gap problem. The governments in Britain, Australia and New Zealand have been all over this issue for years. They haven’t solved the problem, but at least they’re trying.

From England’s Independent:

Here are the first three graphs:

Boys aged three and four must be made to write more to stop them falling behind girls before they even reach school, the Government will order nurseries and childminders.

New boy-friendly guidance is to be sent to all nurseries and childminders advising them to get the youngest boys to take more interest in writing, scribbling and drawing - basically just putting pencil to paper.

After a year of school, more than one in six boys cannot write his own name or simple words such as “mum”, “dad” or “cat” - double the number of girls - official figures show.

Here’s the rationale for all-boys schools…

richard — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:11:28 +0000

It’s about steering urban boys in the right direction. In New York, fewer than 40 percent of black boys graduate from high school, according to David Banks from the Eagle Academy for Young Men. In my search for what works academically, I tend to overlook those other needs. From the perspective of academics-only, I”m not convinced that all-boys charters are needed. I see coed charters, and a few traditional schools, doing just as well with boys. But there are other perspectives, especially in large urban districts.

Here’s another all-boys charter high school opening in Rochester.

Women who go into finance…

richard — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:47:04 +0000

With women dominating academia, the career choices made by women become more significant. Here’s an interesting piece from Harvard Magazine (thanks to Crusty Old Academic) that tracks women in finance.

Comments on Inside Higher Ed op-ed

richard — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:29:52 +0000

You’ll find these interesting.