NYTimes has great article today on TFA founder Wendy Kopp and husband Richard Barth, who runs the KIPP network of schools. The writer never dips into the boys issue, but each is an important player in the boy troubles.

Let’s start with KIPP. During my first visit to the KIPP DC: KEY Academy I paused in the hallway to study a posting of test scores. What I saw amazed me: In literacy skills, the seventh grade boys at KEY Academy scored even with the girls, maybe even a little ahead. When I asked the KIPP leaders in Houston if that happened in other KIPP schools, they took the time to run the numbers. After studying the data from several middle schools, they concluded it was no quirk. Boys arrive at KIPP schools in fifth grade reading roughly two years behind the girls, but by the end of seventh grade the boys, on average, read as well as the girls.

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