Poor white boys have poor educational outcomes for many reasons. Dating back to post WW2 at least girls have had better eg 11+ results. Many girls who had higher scores than boys ended up in Secondary Mods ( leaving at age 15 before exams because there were roughly the same number of places for both sexes in single sex Grammar Schools.)
Somehow we have got to the situation where in working class areas especially, there is football for boys but little else. ( Maybe some rugby.) Few boys do art, acting, music etc. Even gymnastics - (none in my granddaughter's class), horse riding no boys, dancing none. Why? Spanish boys ride horses, the Russians dance etc.
I think it starts early. I remember only one father coming to parents' evening in my inner city school. However I do remember groups of boys ( under 11) roaming the streets after 10pm. The parents would not allow their daughters to do the same but often the reaction of boys being noisy was 'get out!' so boys would get much less conversation / interaction with parents ( ie mothers and grandmothers) than their sisters. Fathers were often absent.
We need to reinstate support for parents of pre schoolers, free youth clubs, free sports centres, extend library opening times so children can visit at weekends and evenings to do homework etc., better pay, higher minimum wage, shorter hours etc.
Parents in poorer areas often work very long hours in poorly paid jobs or on night shifts or irregular hours so contact with children is sporadic. When research was done into what led to higher academic success the main correlation was whether the children ate with their parents. Cultures which enable this (Jewish? Chinese,? mothers and daughters? ) have better success academically.