Southern Leadership Academy Social Studies teacher Wilma K. Spencer, center, answers questions from a class of 8th grade boys in Louisville, Ky. (AP)

The statistics on boys in schools keep getting worse. The latest show that boys in 65 countries scored significantly lower than girls in literacy tests. Other research shows that boys are far more likely to be held back a year in school, to be suspended or to drop out of school altogether.

Scholar Ali Carr-Chellman tells Here and Now's Robin Young that the problem is not boys. The problem, she says, is that schools no longer welcome the competitive, physical culture of boys, and boys are getting the message that school is not for them.

Carr-Chellman says to reach boys, schools should start with what boys like, including video games, and incorporate that into teaching.

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