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Academic Performance
Boys often begin to fall behind girls in elementary school, which leads to higher dropout rates and juvenile delinquency, and boys often show signs of behavioral problems early in life (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/10/20051027.html ).
Early reading and learning failures are precursors to unemployment (Bureau of Labor Statistics 1999), drug addiction (National Institute on Drug Abuse 1997), homelessness (National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty 1997), and prison sentences (Bureau of Justice Statistics 1991).
Boys in elementary school through high school score significantly lower than girls on standardized measures of reading achievement (Pottorff, Phelps-Zientarsky, and Skovera 1996).
Nationally, 36 percent of black males (as compared to 44 percent of black females, 72 percent of white males and 77 percent of white females) score at or above the Basic level in grade 4
Reading (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2005).
In 2006, girls consistently outperformed boys in
Boston on the 4th grade MCAS exam in English Language Arts. In
Boston, only 20 % of black and 21% of Latino boys received passing scores or higher on the exam.
In 2006, girls consistently outperformed boys in
Boston on the 4th grade MCAS exam in Mathematics. In
Boston , only 18% of black and 21% of Latino boys received passing scores or higher on the exam.
Boys are 50 percent more likely to be retained a grade than girls (Kleinfeld 1999).
The governor of
Indiana has stated that determining the number of new prisons to build is based, in part, on the number of second graders not reading at second-grade level (Education Week, November 3, 1999).
In
California, the percentage of children who never make it past the fourth-grade reading level is used to help gauge the number of future prison beds to fund (Washington Post, July 6, 2004).
Special Education and Disability
African American males are also three times likely as white males to be enrolled in special education programs for the "mildly to moderately mentally retarded," according to a 1992 report released by the Office of Civil Rights.
17% of public school children are black, but 41% of special education placements are black students, and of those, 85% are male (Massachusetts Department of Education)
A 2006 report of on educating children with disabilities indicated that 84% of all special education students in Boston are Black and Hispanic. (Guiney, E.C., Cohen, M.A., and Moldow, E.)
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