---

DOUGLASS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, BOULDER, COLORADO
Kelley King, Principal of Douglass Elementary, reported in October, 2005.
 
In August 2004, the faculty of Douglass Elementary studied our achievement data and noted a gap in achievement between boys and girls in writing. The faculty decided to establish a school improvement goal to close the gap through the implementation of instructional strategies shown to be effective in accommodating the brain differences of boys.

The teachers and principal studied the research in Michael Gurian’s book, Boys and Girls Learn Differently and the ASCD article, With Boys and Girls in Mind (Educational Leadership, by Michael Gurian and Kathy Stevens, November 2004). The instructional strategies we implemented are recommended by Michael Gurian and Kathy Stevens and included:

• Increasing movement and kinesthetic learning opportunities;
• Expanding the selection of reading materials to interest boys in the classrooms;
• Teaching and encouraging visual-spatial representations of thinking, especially during the planning stages of writing;
• Creating a greater sense of purpose by offering expanded audiences for writing;
• Creating a greater sense of relevancy through more freedom with topic choice in writing;
• Increasing the use of male role models in the classroom, especially in reading and writing;
• Offering some opportunities for single-sex activities within a classroom (i.e.. all-boy literature circle);
• Offering real-life simulations, such as re-enactments and debates, to engage boys emotionally.

After one year of implementation of boy-friendly strategies, we saw amazing results in our writing achievement scores – especially for boys, but also for all sub-groups of students. Our special education students are 4 to 1 boys. The results with those students were truly amazing.

Our results for the 2004 - 2005 school year are reported in weighted index scores. Weighted index score gains indicate the amount of growth in one year’s time, from 3rd to 4th and 4th to 5th.

Students identified as Talented and Gifted gained 4 points in writing. When all subgroups are considered, Douglass students achieved a seven point weighted index score gain in writing compared to the district average of +1 point gain.

CLOSING ACHIEVEMENT GAPS

We made excellent progress in closing the achievement gap between boys and girls this year. Overall, the gap between boys’ and girls’ performance in writing decreased from 13 points to 5 points, which was our goal target. This broke a cycle of girls outperforming boys by 13 – 16 points over the prior three years. When broken down by grade level, third grade had the highest jump in boys’ weighted index score (7 points). Boys in fourth grade last year jumped from a weighted index score of 92 in 3rd grade to 96 in fourth grade. A jump from 93 to 106 was made by students in fifth grade students during the ’04 – ’05 school year.

BOY FRIENDLY STRATEGIES WORK

Dr. King reports: Just yesterday, I had a parent on our School Improvement Team thank me for the strategies that we’ve implemented in the last year to support boys. She said that her son started the year in tears about writing and by the end of the year he was flourishing and now loves writing. That information is worth more than all of the weighted index scores put together!!

For Douglass Elementary School's second year statistics, click here.
(This is a Microsoft Word document.)

---

---

EDINA SCHOOL DISTRICT, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA
Under the direction of Superintendent Ken Dragseth, Edina Public Schools, just outside Minneapolis, has implemented a gender initiative over the last three years that has helped close achievement gaps and improve overall education for its students.  As Dr. Dragseth reports, "In 2002, we completed a data analysis of 70 indicators and found that 1) girls were doing much better in our schools than boys on most indicators, thus we had an overall achievement gap that needed addressing, and 2) that there were specific areas of need for girls as well."

The Edina district decided to work on gaining greater knowledge and training on how boys and girls learn differently, finding Michael Gurian's BOYS AND GIRLS LEARN DIFFERENTLY! and the work of the Gurian Institute relevant and helpful.  Dr. Dragseth continues, "We contacted the Gurian Institute in order to increase our knowledge and training in issues facing boys and girls specifically, including practical applications of instructional strategies that focus on gender differences."

Over the last three years, Edina Public Schools has seen qualitative and quantitative improvement in student performance.  As Dr. Dragseth puts it, "The gender-friendly instructional theory and techniques have helped us to significantly improve student achievement and meet the individual needs of both genders.  For instance, when our seventh and tenth grade MCA Reading and Math mean scores are now compared with our surrounding districts, we notice higher scores in our district for both boys and girls.  We also notice the gap between boys and girls beginning to close.  Furthermore, we have found that teacher and parent heightened awareness of gender differences in learning styles and appropriate strategies has been well received by students themselves.”

---

ROOSEVELT MIDDLE SCHOOL, OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA
Submitted by Marilyn Vrooman, Principal.

In 2005, we had a gender gap in reading achieveme nt of 17%. Our boys scored 55% satisfactory on the 8th grade CRT reading test and our girls scored 72%.   I began looking for strategies that would correct this problem and came up with gender separation in classrooms.  The teachers agreed, the parents agreed and we separated the boys and girls in language arts, math and technology education.

Immediately, we saw positive results with the girls.  They took to it like ducks to water.  We are 100% free lunch; 65% Hispanic, 25% white, 8% black, 2% other. We are an urban school district with 900 students grades 6, 7 & 8. The boys were not so quick to work.  They complained that they needed the girls, the classes were louder, and the maturity differences in the boys caused problems in class.

So, researching more, I came upon the Gurian Institute that had many books written about learning differences in males and females.  I contacted Kathy Stevens and had her come for two days.  T he first day, she just observed classes, took notes and studied behavior.  The second day, she conducted an all day inservice for our faculty.  She helped us understand the differences in boys and girls regarding brain based learning, behavior and strategies for success.  After she left, our teachers were charged up again.  The teachers realigned their classrooms to meet the needs of the genders and changed the materials used to teach.

We have found that our boys do not like touchy feely stuff.  They like non fiction, cars, action, etc.  Keeping totally with our state standards for each class, the teachers used different materials to teach the standards, and the boys took off.  And in terms of discipline success, our total fights on campus went from 125 to 30.  On our CRT scores, at the end of last year, our boys scored 71% satisfactory on the reading CRT and the girls scored 80%; narrowing the achievement gap to 9% in one year. This year is the first year we have been off the states "at risk" list in four years.  This year, we have students separated by gender in all core subjects and in computers.  In order to overcome the maturation problem with the boys, we have the students grouped by ability, using last year's test scores.

Honestly, we would not have had the success we had if the Gurian Institute had not come in a worked with us on teaching strategies by gender.

---

Woodward is a professional development school with Stetson University and benefits from funding for staff development from the Nina B. Hollis Institute for Education Reform.  With the support of the Teacher Education Department at Stetson University, a book study was formed in the spring of 2004 using Boys and Girls Learn Differently by Michael Gurian.  In addition, one Woodward teacher and one Stetson professor attended summer training at the Gurian Institute for the purpose of developing on-site expertise. 

In 2004-2005, we implemented single gender classes at grades K, 2, and 4.  Students were placed in the program with parent permission; however, the make-up of the class was purposely adjusted to match grade level heterogeneous mixed classes.  The first year results were impressive.

Positive Assessment Results from Gender Specific Teaching Strategies

Kindergarten:  Percent Students Scoring Red  (below level) on DIBELS  (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills).