How America’s Boys Become Psychological Dropouts

Article here. Excerpt:

'America is failing our boys. Today’s boys have lower aspirations for higher education than girls. While the disparity in interest in earning a degree appears when men and women are in their 20s, the problem may start as early as the fifth grade -- where more boys than girls become psychological dropouts.

Psychological dropouts are students who lose involvement in and enthusiasm for school. The number of psychological dropouts grows as students climb the K-12 ladder. At Gallup, we first discovered this through our Gallup Student Poll, an online measure of student opinions and characteristics associated with success and happiness. Two in 10 elementary school students who participated in the 2012 poll are not engaged or are actively disengaged with school. By middle school, it rises to about four in 10 students. And by high school, nearly six in 10 students are less than engaged.'