ANSWER SHEET: Why boys fail in school

New book says boys may not be ready for early literacy push.

A new book called “Why Boys Fail” makes the argument that boys are falling behind girls in American schools (and in other countries too) because kids are now forced to use literacy skills at ever younger grades and boys take longer to develop them.

The author, Richard Whitmire, says the solution will take a “politically incorrect” decision by Education Secretary Arne Duncan that will require the federal government to admit the problem for the first time.

I asked Whitmire about his argument, noting that it has long been known that boys develop literacy skills later than girls.

Whitmire, a longtime education reporter who also writes a blog called “Why Boys Fail,” said kindergarteners today are being asked to do what second graders used to do, thanks to the standards and accountability movement, and the "No Child Left Behind" law. And now, schools no longer give boys a chance to catch up.

Two or three decades ago, boys usually caught up in literacy skills by fourth or fifth grade, he said. Today, in most schools, they don’t.

Furthermore, he argues, literacy has become important in almost all subjects; once, math class used to focus on calculations, but now it includes a lot of word problems.

When it comes to writing skills, the gender gap is bigger than the racial gap," he said.