By William A. Draves and Julie Coates
The distinguished motivational speaker Forrest Lamb wrote us recently, “Growing up I never knew that I was a ‘Black Boy.’ I was just a boy – my parents’ son. It wasn’t until I left home that I discovered that I was a ‘Black Boy.’ Until then I was just a boy.” (1)
Mr. Lamb’s comment is about race, one with which African-Americans can relate, at least African Americans over a certain age. But it is also about being a boy.
Educators have overlooked or tended to dismiss two essential elements about being a black boy in America today:
- Boys learn differently than girls.
- Boys are graded improperly.
As we all heard in an address to the nation in early 2021, Vice President Harris said of black men, “Their lives must be valued in our education system. Full stop.” (2)
In order for black boys to succeed in today’s economy and society today, the necessary condition is this. Black boys have to be graded based on their learning and knowledge rather than on inherent biological at-birth genetic gender characteristics.
No other number of interventions, help or aid will be sufficient for any statistically significant number or percentage of black boys to succeed in today’s economy.
To be clear, every effort, every activity, every gesture with every single black boy is important and helpful to that young man’s development and success. Every person who has helped a young black boy is to be commended, and thanked. (3)
But overall, if we are to stop disadvantaging our black boys in school and in college, the data, history and evidence indicates that it is essential to acknowledge and address these two intertwining and connected realities. One cannot be changed, that boys learn differently than girls. And one has to be changed to stop disadvantaging our young black men. Grading based solely on learning and knowledge is not just necessary for equity and inclusion and diversity, but also for the economic and social good of the entire society, including the good of white people and other people of color. And dare we say it, the good of business.
Boys learn differently
This was first pointed out to us by Michael Gurian in his classic book Boys and Girls Learn Differently! (4)
The central role of testosterone in male superiority in spatial ability was first discovered and proved by the great Canadian researcher Doreen Kimura. (5) Dr. Peg Nopoulos, M.D., of the University of Iowa later found with fMRI that the parietal lobe is where male superiority in spatial ability lies in the brain. (6) Countless other scientists, researchers, and educators have reported on other learning differences, including fidgeting, studying less than females, taking more risks, learning via competition, desiring really hard challenges, and more.
These learning differences are also part-and-parcel of hard-wired male student behavior, behavior that is required and rewarded in the workplace, but punished in the schoolroom. Which leads to a second fundamental, although changeable, circumstance in education today.
Boys are graded improperly
Until all students are graded based solely on their learning and knowledge, and not in any way based on their behavior, we have a wrong and unjust system of grading which simply violates Title IX and gender equity.
Overall, boys learn the same as girls, as numerous studies have shown, and overall test at the same level as girls, but in every school district and in every college, in every university, and even in graduate school male students are given significantly worse grades than female students, despite their learning, testing and even future success in the workplace.
While single and anecdotal success stories will continue, overall Black Boys will never achieve the academic success they earn and deserve until teachers and schools and colleges grade them based on their learning and knowledge.
Every male in every society in every age in history has had certain biological at-birth natural hard wired unchanging gender characteristics. And every female in every society in every age in history also has had certain different but equally biological at-birth natural hard wired and unchanging characteristics.
Nancy Cole, when she was president of The Educational Testing Service, found that only 44% of boys were given a grade appropriate to their test scores, or what they actually learned. Teachers get an “F” in grading. For reference, they are not much better with girls, giving only 47% grades appropriate to their test scores and learning. Fully 36% of boys were given grades significantly worse than what their test scores and learning showed. (7)
Success That Proves the Failure
We have mentored around 18 young people, mostly boys, but some gay, female, transgender as well as Asian, white and several black boys.
One African American boy was Tristan. His success proves the failure of our educational system today.
We started out as Tristan’s “Big Brother,” but he, like many other boys, had no desire to remain after school for mentoring, so we dropped out of Big Brother with his mother’s consent and just started meeting, usually at our house.
We learned how ‘playing’ at a computer was seen as ‘work’ by him, something preparing him for a career in the value of online work in this century. After dozens of purchases on ABE Books and Amazon, we figured out how to find books he liked to read and his reading level zoomed from third grade to high school level by the magic even Japanese anime cartoon books can instill in a young man. We had no idea how to solve his math problems or explain anything else in school work. So our main function as mentors was simply to reinforce and confirm his value as a person, that he was bright, that he was emotionally safe in our presence.
One day Tristan brought over his homework, 30 math problems. He did 10 of the problems. His teacher graded his work, found Tristan got all 10 math problems correct – – and of course gave him an “F”. Tristan was just doing what smart boys do. They often stop doing simple easy repetitive work. It is painful, mentally if not actually physically, for boys to do easy schoolwork. Overall boys do 30% less homework and schoolwork than girls, even though they learn as much and prove it on their tests. That behavior is required and needed in the workplace, but of course penalized in the schoolroom. So we flunk a child who aces his math problems at a time in society when we desperately need mathematicians (the M in STEM) and of course need and want smart African Americans in the workforce just as much or more. Tristan, like other black boys, like other boys, learns differently than girls.
For whatever excuse the schools and teachers might have provided, and they provided none, Tristan graduated from high school in the bottom 1% of his class. Tristan went into the army and luckily survived his tour of duty in Afghanistan intact, and on exiting had the opportunity to pursue post-secondary education paid for by his military service. He started at the local technical institute, since obviously his GPA would not have gotten him anywhere near a research university. And then on his successful achievement at the technical institute transferred to a university and then graduated with a four year university in two majors, engineering (the ‘E’ in STEM) and French.
Tristan’s unusual and fortunate success only underscores what his brother, the other black boys we mentored, all the other boys we mentored, could not get: an education based on his learning and knowledge rather than his gender.
According to the NSF (8), Black boys excel in STEM. But they are locked out college, unable to be an engineer or mathematician because they are graded on their gender based behavior, not their learning and knowledge.
Supporting Data
Data from the California Department of Education (9) support the contention that gender discrimination against boys occurs in all races/ethnicities, including but not limited to black, Latino and white students.
The data was compiled by The Boys Initiative, headed by Dr. Vermelle Greene, one of three areas of endeavor for the Gender Equity Network. (10)
With students in all races and ethnicities, boys graduating from high school have a lower rate of meeting UC/CSU (California university) requirements than girls from the same race/ethnicity.
The disparity between black boys and black girls is roughly equal with Latino boys and not surprisingly greater than White boys. But the majority of the discrepancy between girls and boys for all races/ethnicities can be attributed to being a boy. That appears to be the majority of the difference whether one is a rich white boy or a poor Latino boy or a black boy in either circumstance. In fact, there has been no other explanation with data documentation given for any other reason.
Conclusion
Educators have overlooked or tended to dismiss two essential elements about being a Black Boy in America toda
1.Boys learn differently than girls.
2.Boys are graded improperly.
In order for Black Boys to succeed in today’s economy and society, the necessary condition is this. Black boys- – all boys, all students- – have to be graded based on their learning and knowledge rather than on inherent biological at-birth genetic gender characteristics. The current system of grading students on gender based behavior is simply a violation of the law as stated in Title IX.
William A. Draves and Julie Coates are authors of Smart Boys, Bad Grades: Gender Equity and STEM in Education. They are senior executives with the Learning Resources Network (LERN), the largest continuing education association in the world. They are also foster parents, teachers and mentors of Black Boys.
References
1.Forrest Lamb, motivational speaker, workplace performance expert, and member of the National Speakers Association, www.lambspeaks.com
2.The Honorable Kamala Harris address to the nation, “Remarks by Vice President Harris on the Verdict in the Derek Chauvin Trial for the Death of George Floyd”, April 21, 2021, White House Press Room.
3. William A. Draves testimony before the Maryland Board of Education, April 27, 2021.
4.Boys and Girls Learn Differently! by Michael Gurian, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, CA, 2001.
5.Sex and Cognition, by Doreen Kimura, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1999.
6. Salinas, J., Mills, E. D., Conrad, A. L., Koscik, T., Andreasen, N. C. & Nopoulos, P. (2012). Sex differences in parietal lobe structure and development. Gender medicine, 9(1), 44-55. PMID: 22333522.
7.Gender and Fair Assessment, by Nancy S. Cole and Warren Willingham, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, Mahwah, NJ, 1997.
8.National Science Foundation, https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/2017/nsf17310/digest/occupation/blacks.cfm
9.California H.S. Graduate Rate Cohorts by Race/Ethnicity & Gender, 2016-2020, Department of Education, State of California, Sacramento, CA,
10.The Boys’ Initiative, Dr. Vermelle Greene, Executive Director, Vienna, VA.
By William A. Draves and Julie Coates
The distinguished motivational speaker Forrest Lamb wrote us recently, “Growing up I never knew that I was a ‘Black Boy.’ I was just a boy – my parents’ son. It wasn’t until I left home that I discovered that I was a ‘Black Boy.’ Until then I was just a boy.” (1)
Mr. Lamb’s comment is about race, one with which African-Americans can relate, at least African Americans over a certain age. But it is also about being a boy.
Educators have overlooked or tended to dismiss two essential elements about being a black boy in America today:
1.Boys learn differently than girls.
2.Boys are graded improperly.
As we all heard in an address to the nation in early 2021, Vice President Harris said of black men, “Their lives must be valued in our education system. Full stop.” (2)
In order for black boys to succeed in today’s economy and society today, the necessary condition is this. Black boys have to be graded based on their learning and knowledge rather than on inherent biological at-birth genetic gender characteristics.
No other number of interventions, help or aid will be sufficient for any statistically significant number or percentage of black boys to succeed in today’s economy.
To be clear, every effort, every activity, every gesture with every single black boy is important and helpful to that young man’s development and success. Every person who has helped a young black boy is to be commended, and thanked. (3)
But overall, if we are to stop disadvantaging our black boys in school and in college, the data, history and evidence indicates that it is essential to acknowledge and address these two intertwining and connected realities. One cannot be changed, that boys learn differently than girls. And one has to be changed to stop disadvantaging our young black men. Grading based solely on learning and knowledge is not just necessary for equity and inclusion and diversity, but also for the economic and social good of the entire society, including the good of white people and other people of color. And dare we say it, the good of business.
Boys learn differently
This was first pointed out to us by Michael Gurian in his classic book Boys and Girls Learn Differently! (4)
The central role of testosterone in male superiority in spatial ability was first discovered and proved by the great Canadian researcher Doreen Kimura. (5) Dr. Peg Nopoulos, M.D., of the University of Iowa later found with fMRI that the parietal lobe is where male superiority in spatial ability lies in the brain. (6) Countless other scientists, researchers, and educators have reported on other learning differences, including fidgeting, studying less than females, taking more risks, learning via competition, desiring really hard challenges, and more.
These learning differences are also part-and-parcel of hard-wired male student behavior, behavior that is required and rewarded in the workplace, but punished in the schoolroom. Which leads to a second fundamental, although changeable, circumstance in education today.
Boys are graded improperly
Until all students are graded based solely on their learning and knowledge, and not in any way based on their behavior, we have a wrong and unjust system of grading which simply violates Title IX and gender equity.
Overall, boys learn the same as girls, as numerous studies have shown, and overall test at the same level as girls, but in every school district and in every college, in every university, and even in graduate school male students are given significantly worse grades than female students, despite their learning, testing and even future success in the workplace.
While single and anecdotal success stories will continue, overall Black Boys will never achieve the academic success they earn and deserve until teachers and schools and colleges grade them based on their learning and knowledge.
Every male in every society in every age in history has had certain biological at-birth natural hard wired unchanging gender characteristics. And every female in every society in every age in history also has had certain different but equally biological at-birth natural hard wired and unchanging characteristics.
Nancy Cole, when she was president of The Educational Testing Service, found that only 44% of boys were given a grade appropriate to their test scores, or what they actually learned. Teachers get an “F” in grading. For reference, they are not much better with girls, giving only 47% grades appropriate to their test scores and learning. Fully 36% of boys were given grades significantly worse than what their test scores and learning showed. (7)
Success That Proves the Failure
We have mentored around 18 young people, mostly boys, but some gay, female, transgender as well as Asian, white and several black boys.
One African American boy was Tristan. His success proves the failure of our educational system today.
We started out as Tristan’s “Big Brother,” but he, like many other boys, had no desire to remain after school for mentoring, so we dropped out of Big Brother with his mother’s consent and just started meeting, usually at our house.
We learned how ‘playing’ at a computer was seen as ‘work’ by him, something preparing him for a career in the value of online work in this century. After dozens of purchases on ABE Books and Amazon, we figured out how to find books he liked to read and his reading level zoomed from third grade to high school level by the magic even Japanese anime cartoon books can instill in a young man. We had no idea how to solve his math problems or explain anything else in school work. So our main function as mentors was simply to reinforce and confirm his value as a person, that he was bright, that he was emotionally safe in our presence.
One day Tristan brought over his homework, 30 math problems. He did 10 of the problems. His teacher graded his work, found Tristan got all 10 math problems correct – – and of course gave him an “F”. Tristan was just doing what smart boys do. They often stop doing simple easy repetitive work. It is painful, mentally if not actually physically, for boys to do easy schoolwork. Overall boys do 30% less homework and schoolwork than girls, even though they learn as much and prove it on their tests. That behavior is required and needed in the workplace, but of course penalized in the schoolroom. So we flunk a child who aces his math problems at a time in society when we desperately need mathematicians (the M in STEM) and of course need and want smart African Americans in the workforce just as much or more. Tristan, like other black boys, like other boys, learns differently than girls.
For whatever excuse the schools and teachers might have provided, and they provided none, Tristan graduated from high school in the bottom 1% of his class. Tristan went into the army and luckily survived his tour of duty in Afghanistan intact, and on exiting had the opportunity to pursue post-secondary education paid for by his military service. He started at the local technical institute, since obviously his GPA would not have gotten him anywhere near a research university. And then on his successful achievement at the technical institute transferred to a university and then graduated with a four year university in two majors, engineering (the ‘E’ in STEM) and French.
Tristan’s unusual and fortunate success only underscores what his brother, the other black boys we mentored, all the other boys we mentored, could not get: an education based on his learning and knowledge rather than his gender.
According to the NSF (8), Black boys excel in STEM. But they are locked out college, unable to be an engineer or mathematician because they are graded on their gender based behavior, not their learning and knowledge.
Supporting Data
Data from the California Department of Education (9) support the contention that gender discrimination against boys occurs in all races/ethnicities, including but not limited to black, Latino and white students.
The data was compiled by The Boys Initiative, headed by Dr. Vermelle Greene, one of three areas of endeavor for the Gender Equity Network. (10)
With students in all races and ethnicities, boys graduating from high school have a lower rate of meeting UC/CSU (California university) requirements than girls from the same race/ethnicity.
The disparity between black boys and black girls is roughly equal with Latino boys and not surprisingly greater than White boys. But the majority of the discrepancy between girls and boys for all races/ethnicities can be attributed to being a boy. That appears to be the majority of the difference whether one is a rich white boy or a poor Latino boy or a black boy in either circumstance. In fact, there has been no other explanation with data documentation given for any other reason.
Conclusion
Educators have overlooked or tended to dismiss two essential elements about being a Black Boy in America today:
1.Boys learn differently than girls.
2.Boys are graded improperly.
In order for Black Boys to succeed in today’s economy and society, the necessary condition is this. Black boys- – all boys, all students- – have to be graded based on their learning and knowledge rather than on inherent biological at-birth genetic gender characteristics. The current system of grading students on gender based behavior is simply a violation of the law as stated in Title IX.
William A. Draves and Julie Coates are authors of Smart Boys, Bad Grades: Gender Equity and STEM in Education. They are senior executives with the Learning Resources Network (LERN), the largest continuing education association in the world. They are also foster parents, teachers and mentors of Black Boys.
References
1.Forrest Lamb, motivational speaker, workplace performance expert, and member of the National Speakers Association, www.lambspeaks.com
2.The Honorable Kamala Harris address to the nation, “Remarks by Vice President Harris on the Verdict in the Derek Chauvin Trial for the Death of George Floyd”, April 21, 2021, White House Press Room.
3. William A. Draves testimony before the Maryland Board of Education, April 27, 2021.
4.Boys and Girls Learn Differently! by Michael Gurian, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, CA, 2001.
5.Sex and Cognition, by Doreen Kimura, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1999.
6. Salinas, J., Mills, E. D., Conrad, A. L., Koscik, T., Andreasen, N. C. & Nopoulos, P. (2012). Sex differences in parietal lobe structure and development. Gender medicine, 9(1), 44-55. PMID: 22333522.
7.Gender and Fair Assessment, by Nancy S. Cole and Warren Willingham, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, Mahwah, NJ, 1997.
8.National Science Foundation, https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/2017/nsf17310/digest/occupation/blacks.cfm
9.California H.S. Graduate Rate Cohorts by Race/Ethnicity & Gender, 2016-2020, Department of Education, State of California, Sacramento, CA,
10.The Boys’ Initiative, Dr. Vermelle Greene, Executive Director, Vienna, VA.