Much has been written about the "boy crisis" in the last two decades in regards to achievement in school and the struggles boys face in literacy learning. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data demonstrate that girls consistently outperform boys in reading and writing (Educational Alliance, 2006). Therefore, the…

Although the field of school psychology currently calls upon practitioners to implement evidence-based interventions to address reading deficits, the literature base is limited and inconclusive when it comes to effectiveness of reading interventions at the high school level, especially with older adolescents with reading disabilities. The current…

Much has been written concerning the challenges many teachers face in engaging African American males in reading practices. While much of this extant scholarship focuses on African American males at the pre-adolescent stage of development and beyond, little has been written regarding increasing reading engagement in African American boys in P-5…

The debate continues as to whether the underachievement of boys has reached "crisis" levels. Therefore, in an effort to increase the achievement of male readers, this article provides five teacher recommendations from the perspective of Derek, a sixth grade struggling reader. Derek is a soft-spoken, amiable African American who has consistently…

Just before the start of school in 2006, the author discovered that boys' scores trailed girls' across every grade and in every racial subgroup at her school. In this article, she describes her efforts to increase boys' participation in her annual reading promotion activity by incorporating an element of competition and tracking weekly reading…

Fifth-grade inner city boys engaged in reader response via e-mail with preservice teacher education candidates. Books and laptops were provided via funding from a federal grant. At the semester break, the boys were assigned new partners with which to correspond regarding their reading. All e-mails were filtered through the classroom teachers and…

It can be difficult for school psychologists to become involved in research within their day-to-day role. This article details real world research undertaken in a single high school to identify and address mechanisms which were contributing to boys' literacy underachievement. In an attempt to promote reading engagement and motivation amongst high…

This commentary invites Americans to confront what these authors view as the travesty that typically passes for literacy instruction for older youth in the United States who struggle with reading. In too many U.S. schools, these young people face an impoverished curriculum, receiving literacy instruction that is ill suited to their needs, or…

It is the recent emphasis on testing that has brought life to this issue once again and has spawned the "New Boys Movement," which focuses on helping boys achieve in reading and writing, Researchers have been studying what makes boys tick. What they've learned is that boys take longer to learn to read than girls; they read less than girls and are…