N.J. educators unsure how to improve 4th-grade boys' reading scores on state test

Article here. Excerpt:

'Young boys across the country have trailed their female classmates in language arts proficiency for at least four decades, but over the last four years, the gender gap in New Jersey’s public schools has widened, test results released last week show.

Between 2009 and 2012, the percentage of fourth-grade girls who passed the reading section of the annual NJ ASK test held at about 65 percent, while the share of boys who passed declined by 8.1 percentage points.

This year, nearly half of the state’s fourth-grade boys failed the test.

Male students’ declining reading proficiency is evident to some degree in every grade and in every demographic subgroup, according to superintendents, who said they don’t understand why this is happening or how to solve the problem.'