Male Literacy Research

The popular media lately has published a great deal regarding adolescent boys lagging behind adolescent girls on certain standardized tests as well as the number of young adult males and females in higher education.  Secondary schools report that boys are twice as likely to be diagnosed as learning disabled, make up 67% of special education classes, and can be nearly ten times more likely to be diagnosed with emotional disorders.  Boys are nearly 50% more likely to be retained in school than girls and fewer boys than girls enter and graduate from college.

When examining the data on boys and girls, the results regarding performances on literacy tasks are equally one-sided.  The Educational Testing Service (ETS) reports that the gap in writing between boys and girls is over six times as great as the gap in mathematics.  The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report that females outperformed males on literacy tasks and the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) noticed that females outscored males on both narrative and expository writing.  This gap also increased with age. 

From the research, a few basic trends can be identified.  Most obvious is the data which suggest that:

• boys have a negative perception of reading
• books needs to reflect a male cultural experience
• socialization is critical for success