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lumberjack_jeff

(33,224 posts)
Tue Dec 13, 2011, 01:08 PM Dec 2011

Are Boys Making the Grade? Gender Gaps in Achievement and Attainment

http://renniecenter.issuelab.org/research/listing/are_boys_making_the_grade_gender_gaps_in_achievement_and_attainment

[div class="excerpt" style="margin-left:0; border:3px solid #000066; color:#33000; background:#F1F2F7; width:550px;"]Boys drop out of high school at significantly higher rates than girls. And they are almost twice as likely to be assigned to a special education classroom.

The study presented individual snapshots of the ten largest urban areas in Massachusetts, but determined that gender gaps prevail in schools statewide.

Because prior research has made clear that gaps also exist between racial sub-groups of students, the study examined the intersection of race and gender in high school enrollment patterns. This analysis clarified that, between ninth and twelfth grades, the enrollment of Black and Hispanic boys declines at a much steeper rate than their White male, Asian male or female peers.

Recommendations
The policy brief concluded with a series of recommendations designed to ensure that boys and girls both receive equitable educational opportunities. They included:
Permit experimentation with single sex education on a small scale, such as in after school enrichment programs;
Incorporate information about gender differences in cognitive development into teacher training; and
Pay particular attention to Black and Hispanic boys in mentoring, dropout prevention and MCAS remediation efforts.

Single gender classrooms have been demonstrated to improve education outcomes for both boys and girls.
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Are Boys Making the Grade? Gender Gaps in Achievement and Attainment (Original Post) lumberjack_jeff Dec 2011 OP
Maybe if we stopped expecting everyone to develop in lockstep at the same rate, bemildred Dec 2011 #1
Boys underachieve compared to their fathers. lumberjack_jeff Dec 2011 #2
So maybe it's not them, maybe their environment has gotten worse? bemildred Dec 2011 #3
The worsening environment is selective. lumberjack_jeff Dec 2011 #4
The environment can have selective effects based on gender? bemildred Dec 2011 #5
a) yes. A changed environment has harmed boys education, and b) I'm not blaming them. n/t lumberjack_jeff Dec 2011 #6
It's not just single sex classrooms. Glassunion Mar 2012 #7
You have to play the ball where it lies. lumberjack_jeff Mar 2012 #8

bemildred

(90,061 posts)
1. Maybe if we stopped expecting everyone to develop in lockstep at the same rate,
Tue Dec 13, 2011, 01:10 PM
Dec 2011

we would be more realistic. Why SHOULD boys and girls all develop alike anyway? Is that really what we want?

 

lumberjack_jeff

(33,224 posts)
2. Boys underachieve compared to their fathers.
Tue Dec 13, 2011, 01:20 PM
Dec 2011

The problems are complex, but the solution is not.

http://www.singlesexschools.org/evidence.html

[div class="excerpt" style="margin-left:0; border:3px solid #000066; color:#33000; background:#F1F2F7; width:550px;"]Researchers at Stetson University in Florida completed a three-year pilot project comparing single-sex classrooms with coed classrooms at Woodward Avenue Elementary School, a nearby neighborhood public school. For example, students in the 4th grade at Woodward were assigned either to single-sex or coed classrooms. All relevant parameters were matched: the class sizes were all the same, the demographics were the same, all teachers had the same training in what works and what doesn't work, etc. On the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test), here were the results:
Percentage of students scoring proficient on the FCAT

boys in coed classes: 37% scored proficient
girls in coed classes: 59% scored proficient
girls in single-sex classes: 75% scored proficient
boys in single-sex classes: 86% scored proficient.
Remember, these students were all learning the same curriculum in the same school. And, this school "mainstreams" students who are learning-disabled, or who have ADHD etc. Many of those boys who scored proficient in the all-boys classes had previously been labeled "ADHD" or "ESE" in coed classes.

2008 update: in a recent report on NBC Nightly News, Professor Kathy Piechura-Couture of Stetson University , reported that over the four years of the pilot study, 55% of boys in the coed classrooms scored proficient on the FCAT, compared with 85% of boys in the all-boys classes. Same class size. Same curriculum. Same demographics.

Frequent suspension often results in the student dropping out.

One significant reason for the success of this model is that boy misbehavior which would result in a suspension in a co-ed environment isn't reacted to as harshly in a single-sex classroom.

bemildred

(90,061 posts)
3. So maybe it's not them, maybe their environment has gotten worse?
Tue Dec 13, 2011, 01:22 PM
Dec 2011

Maybe the world they live in is a lot different from their fathers. Maybe their fathers would not do so well today either? Do we even have some common metric that we can apply to boys today and their fathers? I don't think so.

 

lumberjack_jeff

(33,224 posts)
4. The worsening environment is selective.
Tue Dec 13, 2011, 01:32 PM
Dec 2011

Girls are succeeding compared to their mothers.

AAUW explains this away as an artifact of poverty and racism. I guess we're supposed to accept that boys are more likely to be poor minorities than girls are.

Metrics? We have dropout rates, college completion rates, workforce preparedness anecdotes and standardized test scores. All suggest a problem.

bemildred

(90,061 posts)
5. The environment can have selective effects based on gender?
Tue Dec 13, 2011, 01:42 PM
Dec 2011

Isn't that sort of obvious?

My point is that it is futile and wrong to blame the kids, they are just kids, same kids as we were producing in the past, with at best the most minor sort of modifications, and all the rest of it is our own doing, not the kids. They are just kids.

Glassunion

(10,201 posts)
7. It's not just single sex classrooms.
Fri Mar 9, 2012, 06:33 PM
Mar 2012

There are other factors that some developmental psychologists are finding.

Our father's generation had a significant higher number of male role models(fathers) in their lives. There was also far more male teachers in their day especially on the elementary level. Men are simply not applying for teaching elementary level jobs. So you end up with no or very little male influence in the first 5 years of a child's education.

 

lumberjack_jeff

(33,224 posts)
8. You have to play the ball where it lies.
Fri Mar 9, 2012, 06:57 PM
Mar 2012

nearly 90% of teachers are female and that won't change any time soon. It is therefore important to figure out how to make boys education succeed despite the absence of male educational role models.

Single sex classrooms are the most promising way to do that. In my opinion, a woman teacher can do a great job in a classroom of exclusively boys because they will (of necessity) adopt a teaching style that works for her students. In a co-ed classroom, a female teacher is going to stick with the style that worked for her... and half her students.

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