 Gurian
Institute Helps School In Alabama Learning
segregated by gender part of Saks Middle School's new plan
In a couple of weeks they’ll be taking a break from each other. Taylor will study math with other girls. Caleb will be in a classroom of fellow boys. They’ll do the same for their reading and language arts classes, as will all Saks Middle School students. The change, which takes effect when students return from their one-week fall break Oct. 17, is part of Saks Middle’s plan to boost test scores in reading and math – particularly for boys. The school will become one of a handful in Alabama – and just a few in the nation – to segregate students by gender for all or part of the day. Some researchers say such separation could help both boys and girls learn better. “That could be a good thing,” said Taylor, looking across the table at Caleb, who poked at the remains of a corn dog on his tray. Many of her classmates spend a lot of time talking about boys, though she doesn’t, Taylor said. Caleb said he hated the idea, or at least thought he did at first. After thinking about it for a few days and learning that the class sizes will be a bit smaller for boys, he’s changed his mind. Smaller classes mean fewer distractions, he said. Wendy England, the school’s principal, also hopes there will be fewer distractions for her students. On the desk in England’s office rests a well-worn copy of Boys and Girls Learn Differently, by Colorado-based author and family therapist Michael Gurian. She and her teachers have been studying the book at the suggestion of state education department officials. The idea came about in August, when the statewide scores for the Alabama Reading and Mathematics Test (ARMT) were released. Saks Middle, because of the scores of some special education students, was forced into “school improvement” under the provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which mandates the testing. As part of the improvement status, England and the school’s teachers closely examined students’ test scores and developed a plan to raise them. One trend in the scores leapt out at them. Boys trailed girls in both reading and math at every grade, often by wide margins. In the sixth grade, for example, 93.65 percent of girls met or exceeded state standards on the reading test. Only 70 percent of boys met or exceeded the standards. “We didn’t have to look for it, it jumped right off the paper,” England said. It’s not just the boys at Saks Middle. England and her faculty were seeing a trend that was true for the Calhoun County school system as a whole, and for the entire state. Girls in grades 5-7 topped the boys in both reading and math on the ARMT throughout Alabama. Statistics nationally show that girls tend to score better than boys on reading and writing tests, and that a once-large gap favoring boys in math nearly has been eliminated. In 2003, there was almost no difference in average male and female math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test given to fourth, eighth and twelfth graders, according to a 2004 report from the National Center for Education Statistics. A focus on math and science education for girls over the last 20 years has helped the close the gap in math, some researchers said. Now, some say, the question is what to do about boys? Gurian, the author of the book Saks Middle teachers studied, has published a new volume, titled The Minds of Boys: Saving Our Sons From Falling Behind in School and Life. He said boys and girls both stand to benefit if teachers would study the differences in the male and female brains. Boys, Gurian said, need more movement in class to keep from going into a “rest state.” Girls may need to write about a math concept in order to fully grasp it. “We need to teach to these brains in slightly different ways,” Gurian said. “From that a lot of problems are solved. A lot are not.” Leonard Sax, a Maryland-based family physician and psychologist, is chairman of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education. He cites research that says boys learn better in colder rooms – about 69 degrees, while girls prefer it to be about 75. Girls have more acute hearing, meaning differences in a teacher’s voice can have an impact on learning, he said. Sax promotes the idea of completely gender-segregated schools. Gurien said school systems should adopt whatever level of gender separation they’re comfortable with. But some education experts aren’t at all comfortable with keeping boys and girls apart. David Sadker is a professor of education at American University in Washington. His late wife, Myra, wrote a 1973 book, Sexism in School and Society, that helped launch the drive for equity for girls in the classroom. Together, the couple wrote Failing at Fairness; How America’s Schools Cheat Girls, in 1994. Sadker compares single-sex classes to racial segregation. Separate classrooms for boys and girls is a violation of their civil rights, he said. Girls, meanwhile, haven’t completely closed the gender gap in society, Sadker said. Women in the professions still make less on average than men in the same field, he said, and they don’t score as well as men on high-stakes tests, such as college entrance exams. Sadker said the differences in male and female brains often are exaggerated by proponents of single-sex education. Separating the sexes also could shortchange boys and girls who don’t fit the trend for their gender, he said. Sadker thinks if some strategies work better for different types of students, then teachers should be able to adjust their methods. “Are there other ways of addressing the differences besides separation? I bet there are,” Sadker said. “What can you do in your co-ed classrooms to make this work better? That’s the question nobody’s asking.” At Saks Middle School, England and the teachers hope they’ll see results from their experiment in this year’s test results. Parents seem to be accepting the idea so far, England said. Robin Pearl, Taylor’s mother and president of the school’s Parent-Teacher Organization, agreed. “Maybe they have something here,” Pearl said. Taylor, meanwhile, is just looking forward to math class, her favorite. It’s Caleb’s favorite, too. Taylor thinks girls will get along fine without the boys, and might be able to concentrate more on their schoolwork. Caleb thinks boys will be fine, too. He doesn’t expect much to change, though. Boys may get a little rowdy in class sometimes, but the girls mostly talk to each other, Caleb said. About what? He shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows in bewilderment. “I don’t know,” he said.
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