Schools need more male teachers, mentors, role models

More boys are growing up without fathers, and fewer men are becoming teachers, writes Richard V. Reeves, president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, on Education Next.

Men make up 20 percent of elementary and middle school teachers, 43 percent of high school teachers, he writes. The numbers are declining.

"Girls outperform boys in K-8. In high school, "boys get worse grades, have more behavioral issues, and are less likely to graduate on time than girls," he writes. They make up only one-third of the top 10 percent of high school students. If they graduate, "boys are less likely to enroll in college and less likely to complete their degree."

It's not clear that having a "matching" teacher improves academic outcomes, Reeves concedes. Some "studies find no strong relationship between teacher gender" and academic outcomes, while others suggests that it matters, with black boys benefitting the most.

Education researcher Thomas Dee estimates that the gender gap in middle school English performance would decrease by about a third if half of English teachers were men. Another study found that the gender gap in school math performance halved in 9th-grade classes that were taught by a man

Male teachers also can be mentors and role models of healthy masculinity. They can persuade boys that school isn't just for girls.

Initiatives to attract and retain more male teachers of color include a residency program in Dallas, the NYC Men Teach program and the Call me MISTER program in South Carolina, Reeves writes. But it will take more to reverse the downward trend in male teachers.