• Score lower in all grades on standardized reading and writing tests than girls
• Are more likely than girls to be placed in remedial classes or held back a grade
• Rank lower in their class and earn fewer honors than girls
• Get into fights twice as often, and commit suicide four times more often than girls.
Something is not working for boys, but there is little to no direct research on gender
and literacy, and not much in the way of support for boys’ literacy. There are literacy
programs for adults, for students of English as a second language, for women, and for prison
inmates. There are no literacy programs for boys.
