ABC News: New Study Shows Boys Lagging Behind Girls in Reading

Article here. Excerpt:

'Girls are reading better than boys, according to a new study by the Center on Education Policy, and the pattern is giving girls a life-long advantage, experts tell ABC News.

Boys are lagging behind girls on standardized reading tests in all 50 states, the research suggests. In some states, the boys are trailing girls by as much as 10 percentage points.
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So why the gap?

For reading, one theory points to differences between the brains of boys and girls. While girls' brains are more verbally oriented, often making reading skills easier for them, boys' brains are visually oriented.

Another theory is that boys are more physically restless than girls. Even recess time has been cut in some schools in the push for better achievement test scores.

"[Boys] can read, but they need to be moving around or they need to be doodling, they need to be doing something that's activating their brains," said Dr. Michael Gurian, a family therapist.

The problem extends beyond high school.

"There's a consistent pattern here that says boys are not learning how to read as well as girls," Jennings said. "They're dropping out of school at greater rates than girls. They're going to college at lower rates than girls, and they're getting their college degrees at lower rates than girls."'