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  • A 2012 study by the University of Georgia revealed that...

    A 2012 study by the University of Georgia revealed that boys who behaved as well as girls in the classroom were given higher marks than girls who were their equals on test scores and behavior.

  • A 2013 study in the Journal of Human Resources illuminated...

    A 2013 study in the Journal of Human Resources illuminated a finding about why boys are less likely to get good grades or take advanced classes, despite scoring as well as girls on most standardized tests.

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As a mother raising three active boys, Louise Robertson was frustrated by how she saw boys treated in the classroom.

“I find it silly when a boy is misbehaving in school, and he is punished by being forced to sit and read a book during recess. How is he going to behave better without getting to burn off the energy that is causing him to misbehave in the first place?” asked Robertson, a Foothill Ranch resident whose sons are 19, 17 and 11.

“Sometimes, it seems like teachers don’t understand the developmental issues of boys,” she added. “Constantly, teachers just want them to sit and do worksheets. Worksheets do not engage. Activities engage.”

Is the modern-day elementary school a hostile environment for boys in particular?

According to the data, it can be.

Research shows that boys are more likely than girls to face disciplinary actions, including such punishments as suspension and lost recesses, due to behavior. They suffer from a literacy gap too, demonstrating lower reading and writing levels at the elementary and high school levels compared with girls. Boys also are more likely to drop out of high school and less likely than girls to go to college.

A 2013 study in the Journal of Human Resources illuminated a finding about why boys are less likely to get good grades or take advanced classes, despite scoring as well as girls on most standardized tests. It found that teachers of classes as early as kindergarten factor good behavior into grades.

Girls often develop skills such as attentiveness, persistence, eagerness to learn and the ability to sit still and work independently earlier and more naturally than boys. The study found that teachers rated boys as less proficient even when the boys did just as well as the girls on tests of reading, math and science. (Teachers’ responses were collected before they knew the boys’ test scores.) It was only the differences in classroom behavior that accounted for the differences in grades.

A 2012 study by the University of Georgia added a new layer to this problem. The study revealed that boys who behaved as well as girls in the classroom were given higher marks than girls who were their equals on test scores and behavior. So the highly socialized and attentive boys had an edge over the highest-performing girls, but the majority of boys faced discrimination for their behavior and attitude.

Kelley King, an educator and author of “Writing the Playbook: A Practitioner’s Guide to Creating a Boy-Friendly School,” said the traditional classroom is most difficult for the typical boy, who is wired to have greater visual-spatial-processing areas of his brain compared with the language-processing areas that are often more developed in typical girls’ brains.

“Those boys who we are not keeping engaged, they need to move more,” King said. “They are more interested in mechanical things, and less in language-processing activities. Their fine-motor skills are not as well developed.”

Some changes to education may be heightening the problem. In recent years, kindergarten has become increasingly academic, with children learning to read and write earlier than they did decades ago. Some boys – and to be fair, some girls too – just aren’t developmentally ready for what might be expected of them in kindergarten.

“Boys are more likely to need a little more time to be ready, as there are developmental differences in their readiness for reading and writing. Some of the changes in education can exacerbate this. If kids are pushed too hard and learn not to like school, their level of engagement drops,” King said.

Studies have found that most of the gender gap in boys’ literacy skills could be eliminated if boys enjoyed reading or writing more, King said.

It can be challenging to get boys and girls alike interested in reading and writing. Some common strategies include having a wide variety of books available in the classroom or library and allowing kids to pick what they read, at least some of the time.

Research has shown that allowing kids to read silently each day in the classroom simply for pleasure, rather than a grade, can also motivate students to read.

When it comes to writing, King said, it’s important not to overly restrict or guide the topics. “Too often parents or teachers will censor boys. If it is fantasy writing, the only consideration should be the audience. It’s great for a boy to write about something silly or gross if his audience is his 8-year-old friend, but maybe not if it will be read aloud to his grandparents. If we took out all the literature in the world that had blood in it, we’d have no books left.”

King also recommended thinking about boys’ brains when making changes in the classroom.

“What is it that boys are hard-wired to need that we can incorporate in the classroom?” she asked. “The human body is designed to move. At school, you could potentially sit still for six hours. Maybe when it comes to homework, your son might be better off at the kitchen island, working standing up.

“We need to teach kids about their own biology and build in options to move,” King said. “Recognize that doing the work is not negotiable, but giving kids choices about how they put their bodies while they do it is OK. Give them clipboards and let them sit in bean bags or lay on their tummies or stand at standing desks.”

Teachers can also incorporate a “brain break” before a concentrated activity, giving children a chance to stand up, dance to music or do jumping jacks. As for forcing a child to miss recess to make up work, King said, instead teachers might consider scheduling a standing “Friday free time” session for children who have finished their work, and have students who still need to make up work complete it then.

King – who is the principle of the San Diego Jewish Academy, an elementary school – cautioned parents not to think of “boy-friendly” school policies as being harmful to girls.

“It’s not a zero-sum game,” King said, noting that when she worked with a school in Colorado to implement so-called boy-friendly policies, the boys made eight times the gains in reading as the district at large, but the girls also saw significant increased academic achievement.

Just because girls are better able to tolerate a system that asks them to sit quietly doesn’t mean it is the best way for them to learn, she noted.

“We don’t want to cut off kids’ engagement. It can’t be all drudgery. It has to be a balance,” King said. “If not, you’re going to turn off the boy to school, and the behavior will follow.”