America’s Educated Male Absentee

The disappearing male students in classrooms

Presented by: Chris Deputy, Selena Ortega, and Cathy Peck

ENG 101 | Cynthia Klein | Pierce College, Puyallup WA

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Fading Male Students in School

(Learning Power: Further Connections 239)

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Enrollment Rates

• 2011• 57% female undergraduate

students• 43% male undergraduate

students

National Center for Education Statistics (May 2013)

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Are Women at Fault?

We would agree that the educational system is dominated by women educators, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate, but we do not agree that they are particularly hostile to boys. A popular source, TIME Magazine, published in 2013 regarding possible gender discrimination—the poor grades in school are a result of bad behavior (Christakis).

According to John M. Krieg’s 2005 study at Western Washington University, his conclusion is that there is no evidence proving gender impact for student’s performances but there are findings that support the fact that students of male teachers have a 2.7% chance of not passing the WASL (Krieg).

Some interested parties retort that the academic institutions have become “feminized” giving reason to the growing decline of male education success.

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Are Women at Fault?

In his 2006 study published by Thomas S. Dee, girls do tend to fair better under the instruction of women where boys tend to excel better by an estimated 4% when taught by men. However, the study also indicates that the female students suffered by the same 4% differential under male instructors (Dee 74).

Based on these findings, we would argue that there is not enough evidence to support gender bias in the educational institutions, but the women educators do indeed outnumber men in the profession as the U.S. Department of Education confirms in their published findings (United States. National Center for Education Statistics).

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Dropout Rate

In 2012 there were more males dropping out of school.

• 6% Females

• 7% Males

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High School Graduates

"Interestingly, the decline was concentrated among women. Women still attend college at a higher rate than men, as they have for decades. But the gap is narrowing: In 2013, 68.4 percent of female high school graduates enrolled in college, verses 63.5 percent of male grads. In the class of 2009, by contrast, 73.8 percent of women attended college, verses 66 percent of men."

In 2013, rapid rising coat of education and more entry level job opening has effected both men and women to go to work rather than go to college. By October 2013, unemployment - for recent grads - was 30.9 percent for those that did not see the value of going to college. (Casselman)

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Single Mother’s As Undergraduates

Single mothers are returning to college due to the need for more job security and more money to raise their children.

"... nearly 38 percent of single mothers live at or below the poverty line. Those with at least a bachelor's degree are five times less likely to find themselves in such a dire financial state." (Kolovic)

In the past twenty years the percentage of single parent attending college has doubled, from 7 percent to just over 13 percent. More than two-thirds of this increase are single mothers. Women are more likely than men to enter or reenter college after having children. Many single mothers wait for their children to enter school before going or returning to college themselves. In fact 25 percent of women entering college today are over thirty. (Goldrick-Rab and Sorensen 181)

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Women vs Men

Given the unbalanced playing field in women's verses men's wages - the truth is if women want to earn more than their male counterparts - they will have to earn more degrees or choose a higher paying industry. (Burnsed)

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Who Cares?

As many self-interested parties would ask, “what does this have to do with me?” We fiercely argue that this is a countrywide community concern because the youth that drop out impact:

Unemployment

Incarceration

Community neighborhood safety Where you and your loved ones live

Where you go to school

Where you work

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Who Cares?

Statistics show that:

Unemployment rates for school dropouts are 40%

higher than those that finished school.

Chances of arrest are higher for dropouts:73% chance for the students with emotional or

behavioral disabilities 62% chance for the students with learning disabilities

More than 80% of the incarcerated population are

high school dropouts.

There is $51,000 per year spent to incarcerate a

single person in contrast to the cost of $11,500 per

year to educate a disabled child.

Incarceration rates in 2010 demonstrated a rate

differential per 100,000 population of:

1,352 in males

126 in females

Suicide rate among 15-24 year old males is 4.09

times higher than females in 2006 which is usually

due to low self-esteem, depression, and anxiety.

(American Association of Suicidology)

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Disability Awareness

Anthony Vasquez

“I want to educate people that blindness is not a punishment,” he said. “I just happen to be blind but I don’t let it dominate my life. I could, but I have learned to live with it. And I know I can help others by helping myself.” – Anthony Vasquez. California State University. Honors Graduate.

Over the past two decades we have seen a decline in male educational achievement due to many of the following reasons:

“This child did not need to “change his behaviors.” We needed to understand his behavior and what they suggested as the probable underlying reason for the behaviors. We needed to remember that behaviors are a message, a symptom-not a diagnosis. According to –Larry B. Silver, M.D. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry. The Out of Sync Child, Sensory Integration Dysfunction

ADHD, ADD, Sensory Integration Dysfunction, Learning Disabilities, all play a major role in the way our children learn.

2. Boys are more likely than girls to be diagnosed with ADHD a 13.2% chance for boys over a 5.6% chance for girls- according to The Center for Disease Control and Prevention report published in 2013.

3. According to the most recent 2006-2009 Centers for Disease Control statistical report, in K-12 education, boys are twice more likely to be diagnosed with a learning disability than girls.

Learning disabilities are more common in boys than girls, possibly because boys tend to mature more slowly

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Disability Awareness

“This child did not need to “change his behaviors.” We needed to understand his behavior and what they suggested as the probable underlying reason for the behaviors. We needed to remember that behaviors are a message, a symptom-not a diagnosis. According to –Larry B. Silver, M.D. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry. The Out of Sync Child, Sensory Integration Dysfunction

ADHD, ADD, Sensory Integration Dysfunction, Learning Disabilities, all play a major role in the way our children learn.

2. Boys are more likely than girls to be diagnosed with ADHD a 13.2% chance for boys over a 5.6% chance for girls- according to The Center for Disease Control and Prevention report published in 2013.

3. According to the most recent 2006-2009 Centers for Disease Control statistical report, in K-12 education, boys are twice more likely to be diagnosed with a learning disability than girls.

Learning disabilities are more common in boys than girls, possibly because boys tend to mature more slowly

13

Employment Over Education

Women are going to school more than men due to the pay issues women are having. According to Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington D.C., "My colleague John Schmitt and former colleague Heather Boushey looked at this issue a couple of years ago. They noted that there was a far larger dispersion in the wages of men with college degrees than was the case with women. In fact, there was a substantial overlap between the distribution of wages of men without college degrees and men with college degrees." (Baker)

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Employment Over Education

Anne Fisher of CNN Money also addressed this issue, in 2013 - based on three professors doing research at Ohio State University and Pacific Lutheran University, a study of 9,000 men and women in their 20s, from 1997 to 2011, funded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics - "It turns out that persistent wage gaps in the labor market play a big part in motivating women to finish school. In the short term, men who drop out face no financial penalty in their entry-level salaries. Women, on the other hand, pay a steep price right away for dropping out, since female dropouts earn entry-level pay that averages $6,500 a year lower than what their male counterparts earn." (Fischer)

The U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 reports women with a 2 years degree make 36 percent more than a female high school graduate, and 78 percent more if she has a 4 year degree.

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Caring is a Community Effort

Clearly, the nationwide community has a vested interest emotionally and economically to solve the nations education challenges.

The picture author Wes Moore paints of the other Wes Moore when he tried to turn a new leaf after being a drug dealer, it was tremendously challenging for him to find a job without a high school diploma or job training. One cannot help but wonder, if the national community found a way to collaborate moving beyond narrow views for solutions to creatively engage the students to open their mind’s garage doors to learn, will it help elevate the deteriorating male education? (Moore 104)

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Men Are Crucial to the Future

Positive, well educated Male role models in any males life can completely change the way that particular male chooses to live his life in regards to continuing education.

Having an advocate on the inside-someone who had gotten to know me an understood my story on a personal level-had obviously helped. It made me think deeply about the way privilege and preference work in the world, and how many kids who didn’t have “luck” like mine in this instance would find themselves forever outside the ring of power and prestige. (pg. 160) The Other Wes Moore

What we are seeing is a convergence in economic fortunes, not female ascendance. Between 2010 and 2011, men and women working full time year-round both experienced a 2.5 percent decline in income. Men suffered roughly 80 percent of the job losses at the beginning of the 2007 recession. But the ripple effect of the recession then led to cutbacks in government jobs that hit women disproportionately. As of June 2012, men had regained 46.2 percent of the jobs they lost in the recession, while women had regained 38.7 percent of their lost jobs- The Myth of Male Decline by Stephanie Coontz published September 29, 2012

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References

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Content Contributions

Deputy, Chris

Presentation design (collaborated effort)

Fading Male Students in School

NCES (Fig. 1 and statistics)

Are women at fault?

Dropout Rate

Who Cares

References

Peck, Cathy

Presentation design (collaborated effort)

Bureau of Labor Statistics Enrollment chart

Employment Over Education

Women vs. Men

References

Ortega, Selena

Presentation design (collaborated effort)

Disability Awareness

Men Are Crucial to the Future

References

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