The problem is the over feminization of education. Want to help boys learn? Do these simple things.
Bring back recess or increase recess time for elementary grades.
Give boys choices in reading assignments that will interest them. Most school literature is so boring to boys they rapidly lose any love they had for reading.
Remember boys may have a different learning style from girls. They are more likely to be hands on rather than passive learners. Teachers should tailor school and any homework to take advantage of this.
And give them lost of strong male role models to emulate(sp). Lots of boys these days lack that in their lives.
Actually I think that there are proportionally more male teachers, in the younger grades, than their were 40-50 years ago. There are more female teachers at the higher grade levels though. Forty or more years ago, teaching, usually at the elementary level, was on of the few intellectual /professional areas open to women. Thus many of them were quite bright. Now women are computer programmers, engineers, lawyers, doctors, and everything else. Thus the women who still make up the bulk of teachers at the lower grade levels, are no longer the cream of the crop so to speak.
Since my wife and my younger daughter are both teachers and my wife is a teacher of teachers, I have to be careful about saying stuff like that... but while it doesn't much apply to the kids she teaches, because of the high standards of her college, it can very well apply to bulk of the teaching graduates of public institutions of "higher" learning. This is particularly true with regards to the math and science abilities of new elementary teachers. That my wife, as the teaching math specialist in her department, would heartily agree with, even at the somewhat elite school she teaches at. (Over 50% of each class goes on to professional schools such as law, medicine, or to graduate school in the sciences, where their success rate is very high)