Boys Are Performing Worse Than Girls— And It’s A Problem.
By: Kelsey Foster— November 2014
As Mrs. Keefer’s class starts their reading block, she thinks back to something she heard on the playground that day. It stood out to her because she remembers taunting her brothers with it as a child. She watched a group of girls run up to a few boys and chant, “girls go to college to get more knowledge and boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider.” Although she knows that it is simply an old children’s rhyme, she also knows that it is still relevant because of the separation and competition commonly felt between young girls and boys and the apparent superiority of one gender.
In the midst of remembering this, she thinks about how more of her past female students are attending college than their male counterparts. Additionally, her female students have scored higher on standardized tests almost every year. She looks around the room and realizes that even now, more of her female students are reading more difficult books than her male students. After feeling some nostalgia over being right as a child to her brothers, she wonders why this gap between the genders exists and how serious it is.
The gender gap in literacy does exist according to current research— girls scored higher than boys in reading in the twenty-two countries that took the Programme for International Student Assessment (Tackling, 2005). The U.S. Department of Education, in the report: Trends in Educational Equity of Girls & Women: 2004, states “early childhood education experiences are similar for girls and boys. In elementary and secondary education, however, girls consistently outpace boys in reading and writing in all grades” (Tackling, 2005). The term is mainly used to describe the current difference in girls’ standardized test scores and boys’ standardized test scores in the United States.
In American education history, for a long time, boys statistically did better in school and on tests (Tyre, 2006). However, once the focus was shifted to raising girls to that same level of achievement, girls’ scores surpassed the boys’ scores. It’s not that the boys haven’t increased their scores too — they have — just not at the same rate as girls’ scores increased (Mead, 2006). So why have boys not reacted the same way to current education and what can a teacher do to help?
Male upper elementary students generally develop, physically and psychologically, more slowly than female (McFann, 2004). Although teachers can’t change this fact, they can understand that the slower psychological development contributes to their reading abilities. Boys take longer to learn how to read than girls and read less than girls. Boys also tend to not comprehend narrative texts and most expository texts as well as girls (Me, 2002, p. 6).
This slower psychological development also affects males’ impulse control and behavior. Socially, boys are often told that females are more intelligent and that their behavior is preferred in schools. Boys receive significantly more criticism and-negative comments from teachers because of their behavior (Sheridan, 1978)—between five and ten times more often than girls in elementary and middle school (Lorimer, 2002). Teachers subconsciously praise the more calm female behavior and male students notice (Collins, 2013). Some researchers even go so far as to say that female teachers are unfit to teach male students because they discriminate against male students (Sheridan, 1978). When the male students notice, they don’t notice that all males are receiving this negative attention; they only notice their own scolding and it therefore affects their self-concept as a reader (Sheridan, 1978). A teacher can avoid this situation in her classroom by keeping records of positive and negative comments and actions by using ClassDoJo or a similar program. Classdojo allows students to add and subtract points themselves, and parents can track this as well.
Not only does the increased amount of behavioral correction affect their self-concepts as readers, but boys’ own attitudes do too. Most teachers can attest that their male students are not as enthusiastic about reading as their female students are. They are less likely to have interest in leisure reading and read mostly for utilitarian purposes. Finally, boys generally provide a lower estimation of their reading skills and are more likely to declare themselves as non-readers (Me, 2002, p. 6).
Behavior and development of boys around the world are the same, but a study in Germany found that boys achieved higher in reading, due to the perception of reading being a man’s responsibility and the higher proportion of male teachers (Sheridan, 1978).
Arguably one of the largest reasons for the literacy gap in the United States is the lack of male literacy role models. While other countries, like Germany, have a higher population of male teachers, in the U.S., male students most often have female teachers in elementary schools when they are read to and are taught how to read (Chiarella, 2006). The solution here is not necessarily to only hire male teachers, and can be as easy as bringing in male guest readers. If a school has male administrators, coaches, or janitors, these men can make excellent guest readers.
In addition to incorporating male literacy role models in the classroom, there are other ways that teachers can structure literacy instruction to better meet the needs of boys. “Tackling the Challenge of Boys’ Literacy Gap” (2005) calls teachers to expand what they count as literacy to be more male-friendly — for teachers to expand what they consider literacy to include a wider view of literate practices and to include more book talks about non-fiction books. A study of fifty-two boys found that every single one could find a type of literature that appealed to them, though it wasn’t always literature that is included in the curriculum (Tackling, 2005). The boys said they enjoyed “literacy that had a clear purpose, provided immediate feedback, imparted a sense of competence or control, instilled a feeling of improvement, and allowed them to be in the moment and be part of a social network.” These different forms of literature can take the form of humor, parody, adventure, amazing facts, suspense, and sports (Tackling, 2005).
To shrink the gender gap that exists in literacy performance, teachers must first acknowledge that it is a problem, control their subconscious discrimination, introduce male literacy role models, and expand their idea of literacy by offering many genres of text.
Resources
Chiarella, T. (2006, July 6). The Problem With Boys… Retrieved September 30, 2014.
Collins, N. (2013, February 12). Boys ‘worse at school due to stereotypes’ Retrieved September 30, 2014, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9862473/Boys-worse-at-school-due-to-stereotypes.html
Lorimer, M., & Taylor, D. (2002). Helping Boys Succeed. Educational Leadership, 68–70.
McFann, J. (2004, August 1). All About Adolescent Literacy. Retrieved September 30, 2014, from http://www.adlit.org/article/23978/
Me Read? No Way! (pp. 4–54). (2004). Ontario: Ontario Education.
Mead, S. (2006, January 1). All About Adolescent Literacy. Retrieved September 30, 2014, from http://www.adlit.org/article/19236/
Sheridan, E. M. (1978). Children’s Perception of Sex Stereotyping in Elementary School.
Tackling the Challenge of Boys’ Literacy Gap (The Council Chronicle, Sept. 05). (2005, September 5). Retrieved September 30, 2014, from http://www.ncte.org/magazine/archives/122024
Tyre, P. (2006, January 29). Education: Boys Falling Behind Girls in Many Areas. Retrieved September 30, 2014, from Education: Boys Falling Behind Girls in Many Areas
