Erin+Conroy

=Notes from NASSPE=

Key point: "when you consider evidence regarding the effectiveness of gender-separate classrooms: Simply putting girls in one room, and boys in another, is no guarantee of anything good happening." (source= http://www.singlesexschools.org/evidence.html)

"Professional development appears to play a crucial role. At the schools where single-sex classrooms were not effective, teachers received no specific training in best practices for gender-specific teaching. Putting a teacher in a single-sex classroom for which she is not suited by temperament or training may be a recipe for failure." SOURCE: [] ) "Education Week": March 2, 2005, pages 48, 34, 35. =The Promise and Peril of Single-Sex //Public// Education=
 * A curriculum that teaches the same subjects in the same sequence to girls and boys runs the risk of giving rise to 12-year-old girls who think they can’t do geometry—and that they will //never// be any good at geometry—and 12-year-old boys who don’t like to read or write.
 * (When it comes to learning geometry, the brain of the average 12-year-old girl resembles the brain of the average 8-year-old boy. When it comes to writing poetry, the brain of the average 12-year-old boy resembles the brain of the average 8-year-old girl.)
 * Merely adopting the single-sex format, without appropriate professional development for teachers, is no guarantee of success. On the contrary, it often leads to failure.

Mr. Chips Meets Snoop Dogg
===By [|Leonard Sax]--->LEONARD SAX... American psychologist, family physician; author: //Why gender matters//, //Boys Adrift, Girls on Edge;// founder/executive director of National Association for Single Sex Public Education(NASSPE)

BOYS: []
 * "For many boys (as Dr. Sax shows in //Boys Adrift//), the single-sex format can change a boy's attitude toward school from sullen resentment and apathy to enthusiasm and energy"
 * conference in Sydney, Australia heard several speakers present evidence that //boys who attend single-sex schools may do better in terms of maturity and social adjustment, than boys who attend coed schools//
 * Historian Steven Millies shared with us how attending a single-sex high school changed his life . "I began high school more shy than most adolescents ," he recalls. "But I did take the enormous step of joining the speech team, and that opened a new world to me. It led me to other activities, and eventually to writing a column for the school paper. The capstone came during my senior year when I debated a fiery teacher about the Vietnam War in front of four history classes. The event drew so much attention that other people wanted to attend. By the end of the day, we had been seen by practically everyone in the school. These experiences were an awakening. I strongly believe that they made possible the development of interests and skills that led me to undertake a PhD in history . When I think back on the catalyst -- joining the speech team -- and I consider the fact that forensics in Illinois is dominated by girls, about 70/30, I cannot imagine that I would have joined the team in a coed school. Even leaving shyness out of the question, it would have been a 'girls' thing.' Knowing the south side of Chicago as I do, I have to believe that any boy who joined the team would have been making himself a target . I needed the chance to explore my own potential without worrying about looking foolish in front of the girls ."
 * didn't feel any embarrassment in showing an interest in those "non-macho" activities.
 * boys feel free to be themselves, to follow their interests and talents in what might be regarded as non-macho pursuits: music, arts, drama
 * A nationwide study by Marcia Gentry and her associates, published in the //Journal of Educational Psychology//, confirmed what many earlier studies had suggested: at every age, boys in coed schools are less enthusiastic about school than girls are . This finding holds whether you're looking at urban schools or rural schools, affluent schools or schools located in low-income communities . And, as boys get older, the "enthusiasm gap" widens. The older boys get, the more they tend to perceive doing well in school as "geeky." Boys perceive the coed school as an institution run largely by women and run largely according to women's rules: sit still, don't make too much noise, don't be disruptive. They see that the majority of the top students are girls, and the "teacher's pet" is either a girl or a geek . So, many boys may devalue academic excellence. If you're a boy at a coed school, being an "A" student does not raise your status with other boys. At many coed schools, being an "A" student may actually lower your status with other boys. Source: Marcia Gentry, Robert Gable, and Mary Rizza, "Students' perceptions of classroom activities: are there grade-level and gender differences?" //Journal of Educational Psychology, volume 94, number 3 (September 2002), pages 539-544.//
 * natural advantage, because they teach the curriculum in ways that motivate boys to learn.

GIRLS: http://www.singlesexschools.org/research-forgirls.htm
 * Expanded educational opportunity

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