College of Education and Human Development
Boys aren't learning to read -- and it's a global problem
December 20, 2010
Conventional wisdom holds that boys excel in math and girls in reading. Truth be told, boys excel in neither, according to a report released this month by the Center for Education Policy. The report, which analyzes test results from 40 states, reveals that boys lag well behind girls in literacy skills - while only tying them in math.
That gap is why many colleges are overflowing with women, while guys are becoming scarcer and scarcer on campus.
American boys, we tell ourselves, must be falling victim to anti-academic influences: hip hop, mind-numbing video games and too much time watching SportsCenter.
But the issue is far more complicated. Earlier this month, results of 65-country comparison called the Program for International Student Assessment revealed that girls tie boys in math while soaring ahead of them by an astounding 39 points on reading skills. SportsCenter, last time we checked, has a limited audience in Albania, the country with the largest gender gap in reading.
And that's not even the worst news. In 2000, the last time we had comparable international reading scores, boys were only 32 points behind. In only nine years, boys - around the world - have slipped another seven points further behind girls.
So what made boys in 65 countries so much stupider in such little time? We're living through a fundamental international failure of schools and parents to engage boys in literacy skills. Yes, our boys compensate a bit by being better than girls at reading text printed on computer screens, according to PISA research.
But does screen-reading prowess balance out the inability (disinterest would be a better word) to read words printed on pulverized trees? Based on college enrollment and graduation rates, the answer has to be "no." Truth is, college has become the new high school. Jobs ranging from bank tellers to policing to sophisticated machine shop work require post-high school studies that were not needed two decades ago.
In fact, the global economic race we read so much about - the marathon to produce the most educated workforce, and therefore the most prosperous nation - really comes down to a simple calculation: Whichever nation solves these "boy troubles" wins the race.
The United States is lagging. Unlike Australia, New Zealand and England, where the boy troubles are at least an acknowledged social problem to be solved, in this country they are considered a controversial and, well, somewhat exotic issue.
Why worry about the boys when men rule the White House and Fortune 500?
Because, for every male who excels academically and in the political and corporate worlds, there are countless others falling by the wayside. Though the steps to a squandered life are not direct, there is a clear trajectory from lack of motivation as a reader in school to aliteracy - choosing not to read. From there, it's a short step to achievement declines, to dropping out of school, to unemployment and underemployment, or even drugs, crime and prison.
To ignore this legacy of reading failure is to ignore the enormous drain that unmotivated, unemployed and incarcerated males can be on our economic health.
Theories abound as to why boys would rather "die than read," as one young man put it to one of us. That reading is perceived as girly. That mothers are bugging their boys to read, while dads are focused on basketball or car repair. That female teachers, who comprise over 90% of the workforce in elementary schools, are virtually the only other reading role models boys encounter.
Others suspect that boys are reading, just not traditional print texts. The problem is that graphic novels, comic books, computer game directions and cheat sheets are not helping boys achieve on high-stakes tests of reading literacy.
Like most problems in education, there are no quick fixes to boys' reading woes. However, experts have offered these recommendations. Begin by assuming boys can be competent readers. As far as we know, there is nothing in boys' biology that prevents them from the same level of achievement as girls.
Then, create as many opportunities in school as possible for boys to have enjoyable and successful experiences with print. Book clubs for boys and adult male reading buddies have shown promise.
Finally, use boys' outside-of-school interests as a segue to academic reading and learning. For example, science teachers have capitalized on boys' obsession with skateboarding to help them read and learn about Newton's laws of motion.
We don't need to make boys better than girls. We just need to increase their access to educational opportunity and career options. That won't just make them more successful; it'll make them better men.
Brozo is a professor at George Mason University and author of "To Be a Boy, to Be a Reader."
NYDailyNews.com, Monday, December 20th 2010, 4:00 AM
BY William Brozo AND Richard Whitmire