Writers Call For NCLB Reauthorization To Focus On "Boy Troubles"

In a USA Today (6/29) op-ed, RiShawn Biddle, editor of Dropout Nation and columnist with The American Spectator, and education author Richard Whitmire lament that none of the current plans "offered up by Congress or Education Secretary Arne Duncan" for reforming NCLB involve "the one change likely to trigger real school improvements: Make schools boy-friendly." The writers urge policymakers to "focus on boys" because boys "are flunking out of school and into economic failure. Far too many boys drop out of high school at a time in which what you know is more important for success than what you can do with your bare hands." The writers argue that NCLB ignores "boy troubles" and "the fact that women are doing better than men in school."