Why School Isn't Working for Many Boys and What Could Help

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For too many boys, school isn鈥檛 working.

The gender disparities on a range of academic and social-emotional benchmarks start as as preschool and continue through middle school, high school, and into college. They span several key areas, including discipline rates (especially among ), , , and post-secondary .

Even in subjects like , in which boys tend to outscore girls on assessments that measure aptitude, some studies show that girls鈥� course grades are higher than boys'鈥攕uggesting a generally lower level of motivation among boys. Similarly, in 2024, men outscored women on the by 18 points in the math portion of the test, yet women were projected to continue to outpace men in .

So why are boys鈥� educational outcomes, on the whole, worse than girls'鈥攁nd why don鈥檛 they seem to match their ability?

To consider this question at length, Education Week sought insights and answers from more than a dozen sources: educational experts, mental health professionals, social scientists, teachers and male students from all grade levels, a robust body of research, and the results of an October EdWeek Research Center survey of a nationally representative sample of 611 K-12 teachers.

From the survey, we learned that teachers see boys, overall, as having more trouble sitting still, less focused and engaged in class, less willing to take on leadership roles, and generally less motivated to perform well academically. The survey results provide important clues about why boys are lagging behind their female counterparts throughout their K-12 education.

They also help inform a broad Education Week enterprise project, School Isn鈥檛 Working for Boys. Solutions Are in Reach, that closely examines this disturbing trend, dives into compelling research on what child development tells us about how boys learn best, and explores schools that have committed to making deliberate changes to the school day in order to increase motivation and engagement among all their students鈥攖actics that have proved particularly successful with boys.

Boys have a harder time sitting still

One early norm鈥攁nd measure of a child鈥檚 success in school鈥攊s whether he or she can sit still, pay attention to the teacher, and follow simple classroom rules. These are often the things that kindergarten teachers highlight and discuss in conferences with parents. And quite often, boys fall short.

鈥淏iologists say that in kindergarten, boys are, on the whole, more likely to be more physically active and have a harder time inhibiting themselves,鈥� said Susan Engel, a psychologist and founding director of Williams College鈥檚 Program in Teaching. The October EdWeek Research Center survey bears this out.

Fifty-one percent of teachers who responded to the survey reported that boys in their class 鈥渙ften or always鈥� struggle to sit still; just 18 percent of teachers surveyed reported the same about girls in their class.

These responses align with research on children鈥檚 development, which shows that boys on average are more than girls, especially when they are younger鈥攁 factor that can be problematic for male students in the classroom which, historically, has been a setting where children often are expected to sit quietly and listen to a teacher鈥檚 instructions.

鈥淲hen somebody is expecting you to sit still and you鈥檙e losing the ability to focus and pay attention, you鈥檙e going to start to feel dysregulated, and all of a sudden you鈥檙e rolling around on the floor, and then the teacher is redirecting you,鈥� said kindergarten teacher Jessica Arrow. 鈥淭hen all of a sudden, you feel like you鈥檝e gotten in trouble, but you don鈥檛 know what you鈥檝e done wrong, because you鈥檙e really just doing what your body needs to do.鈥�

In her early days of teaching, 鈥淚 was feeling frustrated because I was constantly reprimanding and redirecting children, who seemed disengaged and unhappy,鈥� said Arrow, now in her 18th year teaching at Symonds Elementary School in Keene, N.H. 鈥淭he expectation was that children were listening, sitting still, attending, and hopefully absorbing everything I was saying.鈥�

Arrow attributes her earlier frustration largely to the way she taught鈥攖he 鈥渄irect instruction鈥� method that she learned in her undergraduate teacher preparation program, where the teacher talks and the students sit and listen. That style of instruction wasn鈥檛 working well for her or her young students鈥攎ost notably some of the boys in her class.

Informed by the latest on early childhood development, Arrow now runs her classroom much differently than she used to, incorporating music, movement, guided play, and choice time into the curriculum鈥攚hile still meeting state learning standards.

Now, Arrow said, her students are much more engaged in their learning, and she spends less time redirecting fidgety students, because movement is naturally incorporated into learning throughout the school day.

鈥淓specially with boys, the pattern I see is that those who struggle to sit still in the classroom thrive during choice time, or playing outdoors,鈥� she said.

Boys appear less focused in class

The demand for teachers to increase , even at the earliest grade levels, has trended upwards in recent years, largely in response to the standards-based reform movement, which was intended to create certain core academic standards but in many districts has led to increasingly one-size-fits-all curricula and assessment-driven environments.

The amount of time students spend in electives like art or music and has shrunk over the years. For countless children, especially boys, the changes have not been easy.

The combination of more stringent academic expectations and less time for unstructured play might contribute to boys鈥� disproportionately high disciplinary rates, which start in the youngest grades.

In the 2017-18 school year, , Black boys were suspended and expelled from public preschools at a rate of more than three times their total enrollment; white and Latino boys were also punished at disproportionately high rates compared to their enrollment numbers. Throughout their time in K-12 education, boys鈥攅specially Black and white boys鈥攃ontinue to be disproportionately disciplined.

Boys take on fewer leadership roles than girls

Teachers report that it鈥檚 less common for boys to take on leadership roles than girls鈥�38 percent said that in the past two years, their female students have 鈥渁lmost always鈥� been more likely to engage in those roles than male students, compared to 9 percent who said the opposite.

One possible reason for the gender gap: 69传媒 who experience failures in the classroom aren鈥檛 likely to feel like leaders in that setting.

Social conditioning might also play a role. 鈥淕uys know that if they sit back and relax, something will get done by somebody else,鈥� said Marshall Stephenson, a high school senior who witnessed this behavior at the co-ed school he attended through 8th grade.

Marshall now attends Boys鈥� Latin School of Maryland, an all-boys private school in Baltimore, where he鈥檚 taken on a number of leadership roles, including with the school鈥檚 most popular student-led club with the goal of teaching peers about healthy relationships.

Following a rigorous application process that included one-on-one interviews with faculty members and an essay, Marshall was nominated to run the One Love club, which involves planning and running weekly meetings, holding schoolwide events, and facilitating outreach to nearby schools.

鈥淚t鈥檚 something that means a lot to me. If I can help facilitate and educate others for a cause that鈥檚 bigger than myself, I think that鈥檚 really cool,鈥� he said.

What motivates boys vs. girls

Marshall鈥檚 decision to go 鈥渁ll in鈥� as a school leader represents the sort of intrinsic motivation typical of what excites boys in school, experts say.

Girls tend to be much more motivated by extrinsic factors than boys. For instance, teachers responding to the EdWeek Research Center survey were nearly twice as likely to report that their female students were motivated 鈥渁 lot鈥� or 鈥渁 fair amount鈥� by a desire to pursue advanced coursework or higher education and test scores and grades, than their male students.

There is one motivating factor that teachers said has a similar sway over both boys and girls: competition among classmates. Sixty percent of teachers said competition motivated their male students a lot or a fair amount, and 65 percent said the same about female students.

Many educators who teach in all-boys environments say that group competition鈥攂etween classes or even grades鈥攊nspires their students to both do their best work and be on their best behavior. For example, the Boys鈥� Latin middle school leans into a competition to see which student advisory group can accrue the most 鈥淟aker Bucks,鈥� which represent points for positive behavior. At the end of each quarter, the group of boys that has earned the most 鈥渂ucks鈥� gets to choose a prize, such as a pizza lunch.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not any one guy who鈥檚 earning the most or the fewest,鈥� said Henry Melcher, head of the middle school. 鈥淓ach member of advisory is playing a role.鈥�

In addition to promoting healthy competition and collaboration, Melcher said the process is a way to publicly acknowledge when a young male student shows positive behavior, like pushing his chair in before exiting class or helping a classmate solve a math problem.

Classroom lessons that link to real-world applications, especially those directly connected to boys鈥� personal interests, also tend to motivate male students to learn, experts say.

鈥淚f you can tap into the 鈥榳hy鈥� for boys,鈥� Arrow said, 鈥渢hen they are buying into it.鈥�