The excellence in education scheme in the UK and the literacy trust in the UK (Government of UK, 2004, Gender and Literacy Resources, 2001) are designing promising practices in order to raise boys' achievement in school. Under consideration are teaching and learning strategies which may be viewed at their web sites. Other UK projects assist students who are struggling (often boys) by providing academic mentors.
Researchers and educational policy makers have faced literacy and school achievement issues head on. Other UK school and community groups have developed Dads and Lads type programs, all of which are intended to bring boys back to reading.
Another theoretical thrust comes from the questions: What is a boy? and How has gender in school traditionally been considered? Rowan, Knobel, Bigum and Lankshear (2001), describe the case of Willoughby Heights. A gender equity task force set up for the study had goals of: inclusion and acceptance, to examine traditional conceptions of masculine and feminine, and to develop strategies to respond to needs of boys and girls (Rowan et al, 2001). Our project also gathers data relating to school literacy, while recognizing that there are as many differences between boys and other boys, girls and other girls as there are between boys and girls (2001). And like the Willoughby Heights case, our challenge was to develop strategies to involve boys and teachers of those boys in literacy activities and to change the "boys - trouble-anti-literacy mindset that appeared to dominate in terms of how the boys thought about themselves and how some of the teachers thought about the boys" (2001, p.115). A male mentor in our project encountered just such a mindset amongst the children he was reading to. He asked a grade four class if they liked to read, and the responses ranged from several girls who did say they loved to read to this statement made by a boy, "I don't like reading and nothing you say will change that." The reading mentor reported this exchange saying, "This is what the project is trying to do - change his mind."
The lack of role models for boys is a recurring theme in the literature (Norman, 2002; Murphy, 2001; Sokal, 2002). Jon Scieszka writes on his website Guys Read http://www.guysread.com about his concern that boys score lower on standardized tests. Scieszka feels that there are not enough male role models along with other factors such as uninteresting book choices.