(NewsNation) — Boys are falling behind in school, causing a concerning trend in the United States. Many boys claim traditional schools favor girls and some parents are now enrolling their sons in all-male middle schools.
This trend has been happening for years and is well documented through studies and reports. The decline in success for boys has influenced an increase in all-boy school openings across the nation, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Educators believe boys need more hands-on learning, frequent breaks and plenty of movement.
Two schools that look to provide this for the gender group are Field Middle School in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy in Dallas.
The Dallas school has been around for more than a decade and has seen some promising results.
U.S. News and World Report ranks schools across the nation and found that 91% of students at Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy scored a proficient rating in reading. The district average is just over 50%.
“Having the single-gender environment here just allows us to treat each young man — and we call out students brothers — to treat each brother as an individual,” Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy principal Rashad Jackson said.
Educators at these schools said the students tend to feel more free and less pressure to perform than when girls are around.
“In a single-sex environment, we believe that boys can be more open and vulnerable with their learning strengths. There are learning areas for growth so that they can become better self-advocates,” said Jason Baeton, a founding head of Field Middle School.
Psychologists say boys try to impress the girls, yet the girls don’t participate as much. The same is said for music and art classes, only the roles are reversed.
“We’re trying to figure it out. We’re still struggling to get attention on this issue,” said Loakim Boutakidis, a professor of child and adolescent studies at Cal State Fullerton. “We still get a lot of pushback.”
That’s another issue some educators say they run into: People don’t believe that boys are falling behind in school.