Richard Whitmire talks with Education Next about how K-12 schools shortchange boys and what can be done to help boys do better in school. For more on this topic, see “Gender Gap: Are Boys Being Shortchanged in K-12 Schooling?” in the Spring 2010 issue of Education Next.

“[The problem] really is only about two decades old. It started with education reforms that pushed literacy skills down into the very early grades when boys are not as capable of receiving them or dealing with them as girls are. The boys get discouraged and they figure that this school is just not for them, it’s for girls.” – Richard Whitmire on why boys are failing