Examine the risk factors for dropout among males living in poverty, especially generational poverty. Explore personal, community, and school system issues, including family dysfunction, disability, poor teaching, punitive discipline, and absence of differentiated instruction.

The book structures these issues into four categories of development—physical, emotional, cognitive, and social—examining how poverty intensifies each. Additional chapters explore the unique problems of sensitive, gay, gifted, ADHD, and postadolescent males. Within each of these areas of development, the authors offer concrete suggestions for keeping boys engaged with school and the learning process.