Skip Maine state header navigation

State Search:

Agencies | Online Services | Help

Page Tools Page Tools Email page Map addresses En español En français English

Panel to study why boys lagging in school

Source:
Bangor Daily News
Monday, 02/16/2004
Edition: 1, Section: b, Page 1

"I don't necessarily walk around thinking, 'How many girls? How many boys ?'" said the Guilford principal. "But when you go back and look at the numbers, it's pretty striking."

Statewide, boys are underperforming in myriad ways, lagging behind girls in grades, education aspirations and college attendance.

Now educators want to find out why.

State Education Commissioner Susan Gendron is organizing a group to study the issue and recommend ways to turn things around. Among those on the panel will be representatives from the University of Maine and the George J. Mitchell Scholarship Research Institute, which is focusing on high school reform and college aspirations among youth.

"Part of our goal will be to survey research on gender that already exists to find out what we can learn from that," said Deputy Commissioner Patrick Phillips.

A dozen years ago, when girls were falling behind boys in science and math, a rallying cry went up, said former Education Commissioner J. Duke Albanese , who is now policy adviser for the Mitchell Institute's Great Maine Schools Project.

Girls were invited to attend science and math camps, visit colleges and universities, and participate in mentoring programs.

Now the gap has all but disappeared.

"I think the same kind of thing will come out of a focused examination of our young males," Albanese said. "If there is indeed growing evidence that our young boys aren't showing the kinds of behaviors and successes in school to realize their aspirations, then I think there will be a response from teachers, moms and dads, and the greater community that we've got to give some focus to boys ."

Long perceived as having an edge in schooling and employment, boys , as it turns out, aren't favored after all.

While girls have caught up with boys in science and math, the typical boy is a year and a half behind the typical girl in reading and writing.

Data on the gender gap have "been quite consistent for more than 10 years," said Horace "Brud" Maxcy of the state Department of Education. He oversees the Maine Educational Assessment given in grades four, eight and 11.

According to the latest data, 44 percent of boys in grade four met or exceeded the standard in reading compared with 54 percent of girls. In grade eight, 37 percent of boys and 52 percent of girls met or exceeded the standard. And in grade 11, 39 percent of boys and 55 percent of girls met or exceeded the standard.

Similar gaps exist nationally, Maxcy said.

Research says boys are in trouble on other fronts. They are 15 times as likely as girls to be victims of violent crimes; they commit suicide more often; drop out of high school at four times the rate of adolescent girls; and are more apt to be left behind a grade and diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.

The majority in special education classes and in juvenile mental facilities is male. In addition, 90 percent of adolescent discipline problems in schools are male, as are most expulsions and suspensions.

Girls, meanwhile, earn better grades and are more likely to make the honor roll, take advanced placement classes, be named valedictorian and salutatorian, participate in student government and school activities, and go to college.

Every year, two-thirds of the Mitchell Scholars are women, according to Lisa Plimpton, director of research at the Mitchell Institute. Of the applicants for the scholarship - which is given to high school seniors - 70 percent are female.

Surveys by UM's National Center for Student Aspirations and the Mitchell Institute show that boys are more pessimistic about in their ability to be prepared for the future.

More girls than boys said they cared about getting into college, and more also said they had been advised by an adult to further their education.

During interviews a couple of years ago when asked whether they liked school, the majority of little girls said yes, while most little boys answered no, Carla Ritchie, co-director of UM's aspirations center, recalled last week.

From the earliest days, "it's almost as though there's an expectation for boys not to do well in school," she said.

The young pupils may provide a glimpse of the future. The U.S. Department of Education reports that in 1996 there were 8.4 million women in college and 6.7 million men. By 2007, 9.2 million women will attend college compared with 6.9 million men.

"It's a frightening statistic," said Richard Kent, assistant professor of education at UM. "It doesn't bode well for society in general. Boys are abandoning ship."

In the University of Maine System, women consistently outnumbered men between 1992 and 2002. Currently there are 21,685 women who make up 63.1 percent of the student body, and 12,690 men accounting for 36.9 percent.