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Gender differences in schools
The benefits of single gender schools
The benefits of single gender schools
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Recommended: Gender differences in schools
Everyone has an opinion on the learning styles of girls and boys. Lawmakers, educators, parents, and community leaders all desire to see students succeed in the academic arena and gender schooling is on the rise in public, private, charter and magnet schools. Consequently, many parents believe single-sex classes are beneficial to learning because students are free of distractions from members of the opposite sex. Single sex classes enhance opportunities for the development and refinement of leadership skills. Students are free to compete more aggressively on a single gender competitive playing field with an abandonment of prejudice and disregard for traditional stereotypical male/female identity roles. Will the implementation of …show more content…
Evaluating Choice, Rhetoric, and Practices, author Amber Jones address the issues concerning the education of the African American and Latino male in the United States and explores the possibility single-sex charter school as a remedy to increase the graduation rate of minority male students. The author supports W.E.B. Du Bois premises that it is impossible for white America to educate the Negro man properly because white America lacks the ability to connect with the obstacles that minority men in crisis face from a cultural, social, emotional, psychological, and physical standpoint. African American and Latino males are more likely to be ostracized in the classroom due to discipline infractions and placed in special education classes more than any segment of the classroom population. The author believes loving teachers, a safe classroom climate, and high expectations, are essential elements that nurture knowledge and academic progression. Single gender charter schools emphasize cultural acceptance, rites of passage experiences, human development, healthy self-expression, and mentorship programs. However, the author believes educators in all learning institutions can embrace minority males by helping them discover their identity as a person and assist them in their quest to be the best that they can …show more content…
The authors advise parents to consider the individual 's intellectual and social needs of the child and match the student to the appropriate educational institution. Safety, rigorous instruction, and high graduation rates are essential marketing components in single-gender educational environments. Single-sex education classes also foster inclusive emotional relationships with teachers and peers. The students feel they achieve a higher level of acceptance and are free to shed old layers of conformity and simply be
Cater, the author of the book Keepin’ It Real: School Success Beyond Black And White, became interested as of why minority students were faced with white society challenges in school systems? In her book, Keepin’ It Real: School Success Beyond Black And White, she offers an insightful look at the educational attainment in low-income urban communities. Carter suggest that these students are embraced the dominant opportunity ideology, they acknowledge the dominant cultural to obtain status and goods. However, they use their own cultural to gain status in their own communities. She conducted a research to study the importance of cultural authenticity for minority, such as African American and Latino, students. She examines how cultural authenticity influences minority students’ relationship with the values they believe are privileged in schools. Cultural authenticity reflects on the beliefs and values of everyday society. Carter questioned, why do so many African American and Latino students perform worse than their Asians and White peers in class and on exams? And why might African Americans and Latino students are less engaged in
Data proves that America does not have enough African American males teaching in today’s schools. As a matter of fact, only 2% of America’s nearly five million teachers are black men (Bryan 1). In our American society, more and more African American females are fiercely taking over both public and private classrooms. Although this might be a great accomplishment, school officials believes that if more black males teach, it would reduce the numbers of minority achievement gaps and dropout rates. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 44% of students nationwide are minorities, but nearly 90% of teachers are white. Polls and surveys further read that if there were more African American male teachers, the dropout rate would decrease while the graduation rate increases. In urban societies most African American teens would be more likely to succeed if there were more black males instructing secondary classrooms.
The theme of the research is to discover why there is such a vast educational gap between minority and Caucasian students. Many American are unaware that such an educational gap actually exists among today’s students. This article informs us of alarming statics, such as of African American students representing a majority of the special education population, despite only making up roughly 40% of the student population. It also breaks down key events that contributed to the poor education that minority children are currently receiving. For example, in the past, it was illegal to educate African Americans and when it became legal to blacks were treated as second class students. They were segregated from their white counter parts and given hand-me-down textbooks. This article also discusses others factors that contributed to the poor education of minority students such as moral principles, socio-political, and economic stat. Despite the amount of time that has past, today’s schools are similar to the past. Minority children are still in second-rate learning environments while white students enjoy the comforts of first class school buildings and textbooks. In summary, the theme of this article was to bring attention to the educational gap among African-American, Latino, Asian, and other non-white students.
The Schott Foundations Report (2008) on public education does a great job spelling out the educational inequities in graduation rates and achievement gaps impacting African American males in the United States, particularly in the south. The Schott Foundation on Public Education mission is to develop and strengthen a broad-based and representative movement to achieve fully resourced, quality pre K-12 public education (The Schott Foundation Report, 2010). The Schott Foundation has been proactive over the years by evaluating the success of national, state and local public systems in educating Black males (The Schott Foundation Report, 2010). One of ...
Today's education is often viewed as failing in its goal of educating students, especially those students characterized as minorities, including African American, Hispanic, and Appalachian students (Quiroz, 1999). Among the minority groups mentioned, African American males are affected most adversely. Research has shown that when Black male students are compared to other students by gender and race they consistently rank lowest in academic achievement (Ogbu, 2003), have the worst attendance record (Voelkle, 1999), are suspended and expelled the most often (Raffaele Mendez, 2003; Staples, 1982), are most likely to drop out of school, and most often fail to graduate from high school or to earn a GED (Pinkney, 2000; Roderick, 2003).
Throughout the 20th century, there was an assumption that Co-Education was the only choice for education. It had reached the point that Single-Sex Education was discriminating, and was considered to be inherently. Finally, in the last decade, the federal guidelines of Education have become more relaxed and are now allowing Single-Sex Education. In the past decade, a number of schools have offered and also experienced with Single-Sex Education. Single-Sex Education is a great offer for schools, and should be used more often.
Same sex classes make it possible for teachers to cater to student needs in a more efficient way. In general boys benefit from hands on learning, but girls benefit from calm discussions (Mullins 3). Girls tend to doubt themselves while boys think they can do anything. Boys need to be brought down from the clouds while girls need to be dug out of a hole (Mullins 3). David Chadwell says, "Structure and connection are two key concepts when examining gender in the classroom. All students certainly need both, but it seems that teachers need to consider the issue of structure more with boys and the issue of connection more with girls" (7), and Kristen Stanberry’s research has shown, "Some research indicates that girls learn better when classroom temperature is warm, while boys perform better in cooler classrooms. If that's true, then the temperature in a single-sex classroom could be set to optimize the learning of either male or female students" (1). These observations further support the idea that same sex classrooms can cater to student’s...
gender stereotypes. An allied benefit includes girls being able to participate more without being outshined by boys by “equaling the playing field” (Gross-Loh 2015 n.p.). Gross-Loh (2015) states that “Stereotypes work both ways. Culture… can winnow children towards certain restrictions of behavior (think a young girl who absorbs early on the idea that she must always be interested in playing with dolls, or a boy who feels uncertain and worried about his budding interest in princesses), but the wider culture is endemic with gender stereotypes that single-sex schools aim to free children of… (n.p.) ” Attending a single sex school is completely voluntary, and parents can opt out at any time (Hollingsworth & Bonner 2012).
The single-sex format creates opportunities that do not exist in the coed classroom. (Edison 1) Researchers are unaware that both genders brains function differently. This lack of knowledge may be why the real truth about single-sex education being more efficient than co-ed education has not been discovered. Some say single-sex education may be the key for a brighter generation. It shows to improve test score dramatically. The number of public schools experimenting with single sex classes is now reported to be more than 350. (Silva 130) Some research also shows that single-sex classes have a more welcoming atmosphere. Single-sex education improves grades while coed educations keep an average pace.
When people think of school classrooms, their first thought is of boys and girls together as a group of students. However, educational experts are now questioning whether it would be more beneficial for each gender, of all ages, to attend single-gender schools. Even though some experts are pro single-gender classrooms, there are others who are against this type of schooling.
Single sex education is a controversial battle that will most likely continue for decades. However, research and studies have shown in multiple cases and circumstances that single sex education is an extremely important tool that should be utilized in numerous situations. Many people think that dividing students based on sex will perpetuate gender discrimination; however, this kind of education may bridge more gaps than people realize. Not only do boys and girls develop and function differently, they are distracted by one another. Eliminating distractions and making classrooms conducive to each gender and learning style will ultimately result in a tremendous incline in academic grades and student participation.
Imagine being a parent of a son or daughter and their being distracted by the opposite sex in class? Many parents like to believe that the opposite sex can be very distracting. The world should recognize that single gender schools can be more effective in several ways then coed schools can be.
In female based classes the teachers are known to be more delicate and understanding, while in male classes the teachers tend to have a more authoritarian approach (Schroeder 71-73). The teachers having different ways of treating the students symbolizes the problem of sexism. Concepts such as this rise the question equality (Strauss). There is a specific example brought about by a court case in 1954: Brown v. Board of Education. It states that things can be separate but they have to be equal. Although the initial case was referring to race, the main meaning behind it still stands. All classes aren’t going to be equal if the teachers (not each individual teacher, but teachers for boys and girls) have different classroom expectations (Piechura 21). This is where the main problem falls in the case of single gender education. Parents wishing to enroll their child in school want to provide their son/daughter with an equal opportunity with a chance to thrive academically. If the teachers aren’t giving each boys and girls the same shot is it actually worth it? Yes. The teachers classroom expectations are built to match the needs of the gender, not the opposite
The teacher tossed a Styrofoam basketball to the outstretched arms of a fifth grade boy. Catching the ball was the incentive for the boys to point out missing conventions in a paragraph. The teacher projected a paragraph on the board with omitted punctuation for the students to add. The other boys in the class watched him as he went to the board to add the missing comma and then tossed the ball back to the teacher. A few seconds later, other arms shot up in the air to point out other missing conventions (Stotsky). A simple incentive of competition for the boys made them enjoy learning and actually got them to participate in class. Although single-sex classrooms can develop stereotypes for both genders, separating boys and girls can be beneficial for the students. Single-sex classes are more effective because they raise test scores, create fewer distractions, and make kids interested in school.
Many parents and educators are led to believe that single-sex education can eliminate the distractions for students in the classroom. There is evidence that suggests that there are significant gains for children who attend single-sex schools, especially girls, and that these schools encourage the students to flourish. However, there is an ongoing debate about the impact that single-sex schools have on both the academic achievement and social skills, and there are studies that suggest with an increase in gender stereotyping comes problematic behaviors. (Van Thompson, Demand Media)