Here are some questions from a recent survey for teenagers about girls’ and boys’ experiences in school. How would you answer each of them: boys, girls or both about equally?
In general, who would you say gets better grades at your school?
In general, who is more likely to have leadership roles at your school?
In general, which sports teams would you say are valued more at your school?
In general, who would you say teachers at your school favor more?
In general, who speaks up more in class at your school?
In general, who is more disruptive in class at your school?
When you look at your answers together, do you see a pattern? Would you say girls and boys are equal in your school? Or is there a disparity?
In “Teenagers Say Girls Are Equal to Boys in School, or Are Ahead,” Claire Cain Miller writes about the findings of two recent Pew Research Center surveys, including the one from which the questions above were drawn. The article begins:
In the 1980s and 1990s, boys still dominated American classrooms. They outscored girls in math and science, they raised their hands more often and they got more attention from teachers, data showed.
That’s not the reality for today’s students. More than half of teenagers say that boys and girls are now mostly equal in school. And significant shares say that girls have advantages over boys — that they get better grades, have more leadership roles and speak up more in class, according to a Pew Research Center survey of teens nationwide published Thursday.
Boys are more likely to be disruptive, get into fights or have problems with drugs or alcohol, the teenagers said. And strikingly, boys said they’re much less likely to be college-bound: 46 percent of boys said they planned to attend a four-year college, compared with 60 percent of girls.
Teenagers aren’t often surveyed by high-quality pollsters. Their responses in the Pew survey reflect other data on educational outcomes. Boys today have more challenges than girls in school as early as kindergarten. Girls have narrowed gaps with boys in math (though they have widened since pandemic school closures), and girls outperform boys in reading. Boys graduate from high school and attend college at lower rates.
Boys’ struggles in school could have long-term consequences, researchers say. The share of men working has declined. Nearly half of Republican men say American society has negative views of men, beginning with their experiences as boys in school. Young men’s feelings of disconnection played a role in the election — this group swung toward President Trump, perhaps in part because he promised to restore their status in American society.
“In the last 50 years, as girls have made gains, what we’ve seen is boys haven’t made the same gains,” said Matt Englar-Carlson, who studies boys and men at Cal State Fullerton and is a member of the American Psychological Association’s task force on boys in school. “The bigger issue is: What happens to a society when there’s such disparity between men and women in educational outcomes?
Researchers don’t know exactly why boys have fallen behind girls in school to such an extent. Some of it could be biological — boys mature later, and school has become more academic earlier, requiring boys to sit still and work independently at young ages. The fact that most teachers are women could contribute.
In the survey, boys were more likely to say that teachers favored girls: 23 percent of boys said this, compared with 9 percent of girls. (Very few teenagers said teachers favored boys.)
There is also evidence that boys are socialized to care less about academics. And years of being perceived as being problematic in classrooms could weigh on them, researchers said.
Students, read the entire article and then tell us:
What is your reaction to the survey results? Are you likely to agree with the overall takeaway that girls are equal to boys in school or are ahead?
How do these findings compare with your own experiences in school? Do they reflect what you see or how you feel personally? What have you witnessed or experienced that supports or contradicts what the article says? Explain.
The article states that boys and girls face different challenges both in and outside school. Do you find that to be true? Are there certain pressures, expectations or roles that you feel are somehow tied to your gender?
Though researchers don’t know exactly why boys have fallen behind girls in school, the article provides some possible explanations. Do any of those reasons resonate with you? Do you have ideas about why there might be a disparity?
There are signs in the surveys that people are starting to think there should be more investment in boys and their outcomes. Do you agree? If so, what should schools do to address this issue, and why? If not, why not?
This article focuses on boys and girls. What challenges might nonbinary students face in schools that are not recorded in these surveys?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.
