Girls' Gains Have Not Harmed Boys

Have you heard of the "boy crisis," the notion that boys have suffered because we've paid so much attention to girls' issues in the classroom over the past several years? This argument has always really bugged me because it essentializes both boys and girls in so may ways, and it pits the sexes against one another instead of looks for solutions that work for all children and adolescents. It is an unproductive argument.

Fortunately, the American Association of University Women decided to get to the bottom of the rhetoric about "boys crisis." They did some research, crunched some numbers and found out that even though boys and girls may (or may not -- it's still a debate) learn differently and succeed in different atmospheres, in general, girls and boys who are white and from a middle to upper class background, have approximately the same level of success in the classroom. Boys outscore girls in some areas (notably on both math and verbal parts of the SAT), girls graduate from high school at a higher rate than boys (though the AAUW points out that women on average still earn less than men in the workforce, suggesting the classroom gains are all for naught).

The real issue is that while boys and girls of color and lower income levels have made some gains over the past 30 years to catch up to their Caucasian and middle class to wealthy peers, they are not succeeding in the classroom and graduating at lower levels all around. The AAUW leadership says the lobbyists for the "boys crisis" (notably, Christina Hoff Sommers, who wrote "The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism is Harming Our Young Men") are distracting the country from this much larger problem. The New York Times article is fairly short and admittedly, a little one-sided on the side of the AAUW; you might want to check out the full report yourself. Beware: It's 124 pages and takes a minute to download.

Putting on my college professor hat for a second here, I'd say the research seems credible and is based on massive amounts of data over a long period of time (all kinds of standardized test scores from 1971 to 2007, high school grade point averages from 1990 to 2007, graduation rates from 1969 to 2007, bachelors degrees conferred from 1971 to 2006 -- all broken down by gender, race and class as well as various math and verbal proficiency scores). The authors are a credentialed cultural anthropologist, an education policy person and public policy person who focuses on women's economic status and oversees research for AAUW.

One thing the report does not offer: Any concrete solutions. Perhaps this keeps the data politically-neutral in the eyes of the AAUW, though I'm pretty sure a lot of people would argue that it is not possible for anyone to be objective, and that an advocacy organization like the AAUW should be acting as a powerful advocate to make policy recommendations.

I do wonder what we can do improve the educational system for all students nation-wide. (I'm actually getting involved in a project at a lower-income school in Minneapolis to provide a curriculum that is centered largely around digital media production and literacy, and I think it will be an interesting approach. I'll write more about it as the project unfolds this summer.) So much of this depends on government and funding, and I often feel like such a passive, un-empowered person in that process. It's difficult to see gains even when you are working hard on an individual level to push for reform and help individual students.

On a personal level, I also wonder what I'll do with my own (still non-existent) kids when the time comes. Would I send them to the most diverse school possible so that they have a classroom that actually mirrors the world around them? Do I send them to the nearby private school that has very little diversity, costs a ton and regularly has graduates going to the Ivy League? Should I seek out a school that does some single-sex classroom teaching? I have lots of well-adjusted successful friends who went to single-sex Catholic schools growing up. Maybe I should think about that...

I find myself having a very hard time writing concluding statements for any of these blog entries, to be frank with you. I'd love to make some rallying calls to action -- but exactly who would we rally against? (Please don't answer The Man.) Maybe I need to listen to more conservative radio and take a few pointers from their rhetorical techniques, huh?

For now, carry on, soldiers. Do not go gentle into that good night. Good night and good luck.