Kudos to NYC for trying to address the particularly acute problem of low achievement by boys (with a nice quote from my friend and ed reform warrior David Banks of Eagle Academy ):

City education officials—searching for ways to keep boys, especially minorities, engaged in school—are expected to roll out plans in coming weeks that will likely involve more single-sex schools, as well as mentoring, tutoring and other after-school programs.

A commission appointed in January by Mayor Michael Bloomberg is meeting weekly at City Hall and regularly brings in education and city officials to make presentations and brainstorm on how to reach young men in the city. Members say they hope to launch new programs as early as July.

"It will probably roll out in a few key areas of the city and give us an opportunity to see if the ideas we have take hold," said David Banks, a co-chairman of the committee and founder of the Eagle Academy public schools for boys.

This week Mr. Bloomberg said one of the biggest challenges facing his administration is helping disaffected young men with criminal records and little education. "It's a time bomb in our society," he said, "and we have to do something about it."

From kindergarten through 12th grade, boys struggle more than girls to succeed in the nation's largest school system. Boys are overrepresented in special education, and lower percentages are qualifying for gifted-and-talented programs than in past years. Although boys' test scores and graduation rates have improved slightly, boys trail girls by as much as 10 percentage points in English proficiency from third to eighth grade and nearly half do not graduate high school.

In 2009, 107,405 boys, or 10.88% of boys in the school system, were in special education, up from 10.45% in 2008, and twice as many as the 52,873 girls in the system, according to DOE data. Dropout rates have come down statewide in the past five years. But, according to state data, only 52.6% of boys graduated and 65.5% of girls graduated from high school in New York City last year.

Santiago Taveras, a deputy chancellor for schools is working on recommendations for the mayor's initiative. "These statistics aren't so different from those in other cities," he said. But "we know they are not acceptable."

High performing boys are fewer in number. Kindergarteners in the current school year's gifted-and-talented programs are 55.5% female and 44.5% male, down from 45.1% male in 2008-2009.

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