Turning Advocacy for Boys’ Schools into Action

Podcasts such as The Lost Boys by Anthony Scaramucci and Scott Galloway, and series like Falling Behind: The Miseducation of America’s Boys on On Point, reflect a growing recognition that something is amiss. Society seems to agree we have a problem. What remains unresolved is the harder question: What should be done and who should do it? 

Earlier this month, the American Institute for Boys and Men (AIBM), under the leadership of Executive Director Richard Reeves, author of Of Boys and Men, published a report on the current state of boys’ schools. The findings highlight a striking decline: since 2016, the number of boys’ schools has dropped by 22 percent. Just as important, the research suggests that while rigorous studies of single-sex education remain limited, boys thrive in schools that prioritize strong adult-student relationships, shared values, active learning, and teaching that meets them where they are. Practitioners argue that boys’ schools, by their very design, are uniquely positioned to deliver these elements with depth and consistency. Which leads to a pressing question: should boys’ schools invest their energy in seeking external validation to justify their existence—or turn inward to examine, refine, and share their own practices? The start of a new school year underscores the importance of examining how boys’ schools can respond to these challenges. 

The Crescent Centre for Boys’ Education (CCBE) is dedicated to discovering how boys learn best. Through faculty and student action research, we commit to cultivating school cultures that place character formation at the center, and to deploying pedagogies already known to resonate with boys: active, experiential, and relational approaches to learning. Our responsibility is not simply to educate, but to equip boys with the knowledge, skills, and moral grounding to grow into good men, friends, partners, and fathers. Like all schools, we want to help our students, our boys, not just succeed, but thrive—academically, socially, and emotionally—as literate, empathetic, purposeful and resilient human beings. 

Crescent School is not alone in this work. The International Boys’ School Coalition (IBSC) is committed to advancing the education and development of boys around the world, supporting the professional growth of educators, and promoting the schools that serve them. With a global network of hundreds of member schools, a strong action-research program, and intentional professional learning opportunities, the IBSC guides and informs the important work happening in boys’ schools globally. 

With this support and community, boys’ schools can be more than advocates—they can be beacons of action, showing what’s possible when research, reflection, and purpose come together. We offer a vision of education that believes in boys’ promise and invests in their potential. By sharing our stories, our successes, and even our struggles, we contribute to something bigger than any one school. And in doing so, we ensure that the story of boys’ schools is not one of decline, but of renewal—written one school, one community, and one thriving boy at a time.

Falling Behind: The Miseducation of America's Boys. (2025, April 7). WBUR. Retrieved September 15, 2025, from https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2025/04/07/falling-behind-miseducation-americas-boys

International Boys' Schools Coalition: Home, http://theibsc.org. Accessed 16 September 2025.

Lost Boys. (n.d.). Apple Podcasts. Retrieved September 15, 2025, from https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lost-boys/id1805054239

Smith, B. (2025, July 24). All-boys schools: What do we know? American Institute for Boys and Men. Retrieved September 15, 2025, from https://aibm.org/research/all-boys-schools-what-do-we-know/

Reeves, R. (n.d.). Of Boys and Men.