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In January of 2006 Newsweek put four white boys on their cover with the headline "The Boy Crisis." Inside they told the tale that was so shocking that the myth grew so fast that the factual evidence that quickly came out was ignored. What was this myth? That boys were being left behind.

By almost every benchmark, boys across the nation and in every demographic group are falling behind, reports Tyre in the January 30 Newsweek cover story "The Boy Crisis" (on newsstands Monday, January 23). With boys' standardized test scores and college enrollment rates dropping, and diagnoses of learning disabilities rising, educators are searching for new tools to help tackle the problem. In the last two decades, the education system has become obsessed with a quantifiable and narrowly defined kind of academic success, experts say, and that myopic view is harming boys. 

Adbusters and others quickly came to the defense of the public school system and girls. They called into question the validity of the statistics, but the myth was born and if fed into a a deep seeded feeling that many in this country are unable to admit to - That girls were getting smarter and making our boys look bad. It wasn't just girls making boys look bad, but the media as well. Boys were lazy. Boys don't have ambition. I was appalled by this monster myth for two reasons - 1) I knew better. Having worked in education my entire adult life, I knew that boys were far from being left behind and 2) This was horrible for boys and girls in terms of a gender frame work.

For both boys and girls, the stories played up stereotypes. Boys slack because they have a sense of entitlement. Girls sit nicely in class. Yet I'm sure that each of us can think of one high strung go-getter boy and one trouble making girl. Stereotypes sell, they don't solve problems. Yet, the data was still not parroting the party line.

Yesterday, the American Association for University Women (AAUW) released a study covering 35 years of educational data from grade school to college to look for that so-called gender gap. Well folks, it's there...only it's not what we've been told:

Girls’ successes don’t come at boys’ expense: If girls’ success comes at the expense of boys, one would expect to see boys’ scores decline as girls’ scores rise, but this has not been the case. Geographical patterns further demonstrate the positive connection between girls’ and boys’ educational achievement. In states where girls do well on tests, boys also do well, and states with low test scores among boys tend to also have low scores among girls.

On average, girls’ and boys’ educational performance has improved: From standardized tests in elementary and secondary school to college entrance examinations, average test scores have risen or remained stable for both girls and boys in recent decades. Similarly, both women and men are more likely to graduate from high school and college today than ever before.

Understanding disparities by race/ethnicity and family income level is critical to understanding girls’ and boys’ achievement: Overall, educational outcomes for both girls and boys have generally improved or stayed the same. Girls have made especially rapid gains in many areas,
but boys are also gaining ground on most indicators of educational achievement. Large discrepancies by race/ethnicity and family income level remain. These long-standing inequalities could be considered a “crisis” in the sense that action is needed urgently. But the crisis is not specific to boys; rather, it is a crisis for African American, Hispanic, and low-income children. (emphasis mine)

In the end, there is a crisis, but it is far from as simple as boy versus girl. Rather it is a problem that this country has been struggling and ignoring for many years. How do we ensure a quality education for all? For the rich, the poor? For whites, for minorities? For boys, for girls? For all.   
 

When Veronica isn't pouring over education reports, she blogs at Viva La Feminista, WIMN's Voices, and Work it, Mom!