Geneva Gay, one of the leaders on Culturally Relevant Pedagogy is coming to Rochester on April 8th to speak at Nazareth College. See the link below: Geneva Gay in Rochester Brian Bailey, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Adolescence Education Nazareth College 4245 East Avenue Rochester, NY 14618-3790 585-755-7503 ----- Original Message ----- From: NSMULTER@xxxxxxx To: "regional school" <regional_school@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 3:20:57 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: [regional_school] Re: Why Boys Fail - Pre-K & Primary Thank you for the update Hussain! I knew a school for boys was in the works, but hadn't heard anything recently! I totally agree with your position! We all need to be the change we desire, or at least interface with those who have access to mechanisms for changing systems and practices we know are not in the best interest of our children! Over the past three years I've committed myself to facilitating workshops for early childhood educators (Pre-K, K, 1st, 2nd) that provide information based on research studies, and my own direct experiences, that promote how we can - and why we must - address what our very youngest boys need for learning. The information and experiences I share through "BOYS: Brains & Behavior," "What Young Boys Need for Learning," "Literacy Skills & Affective Learning f or Boys Through Interactive Storytelling," "Wired To Be Warriors," etc. have assisted many early childhood educators in re-thinking how they approach and respond to the young boys in their classrooms. But this work is just a pebble on the shore without the work of people with more clout than me who can motivate the powers that be at the State level to consider the injustice we are imposing on young boys by expecting them to operate at a developmental stage that their brains have not yet reached at ages 5 and 6!! Although more than a few major changes have evolved over the past 20 years in terms of what children now experience in their first few years (or don't experience), the status of gender brain development has not changed in millions of years!! It's the fallout from modifications of academic expectations of young boys that we've allowed - and taking away the very experiences they most need for learning - that are causing the failing and falling behind boys are experiencing! Too many boys loose their motivation and sense of purpose within their first three years of formal education!! Also, in sharing my excitement regarding Richard Whitmire's statements about the discrepancies between formal education expectations and what the innate wiring of boys' brains is ready for at age five, I didn't mean to overshadow or downplay all the exceptional work being done by experts in the field such as Michael Gurian and Lenard Sax, etc. They and others have provided us with invaluable scientific validation regarding gender brain differences that we need to be taking into account when major decisions regarding curriculum are being made. If we don't apply this information to the requirements for young boys to meet - developmentally inappropriate requirements - that are imposed on administrators and teachers, how are our classroom environments to support what our boys need? All the professional development we can pile on our early childhood educators isn't going to help them address what boys need for learning when the curriculum requirements being demanded are developmentally and neurologically inappropriate! Hope all progressives smoothly with the School for Young Men! I'll follow your updates! Nancy In a message dated 3/19/2010 4:14:06 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, hussainbahmed@xxxxxxxxx writes: My research and familiarity with this subject is why I am a co-founder and co-applicant for the University Preparatory Charter School for Young Men, scheduled to open in Sept 2010, here in Rochester, NY. Check out the website at: www.Upreprochester.org. I belief we each can make a difference by doing something and not be paralyzed by the games people play with labels when it comes to the important issue of educating our young people. No matter how much we talk about the issues, if we do not act, nothing will change; for the future will not wait for us to figure it out!! And in turn, we cannot sacrifice the future. Thanks for sharing, good reading. Peace. Hussain B. Ahmed, Ed.D. --- On Thu, 3/18/10, NSMULTER@xxxxxxx <NSMULTER@xxxxxxx> wrote: From: NSMULTER@xxxxxxx <NSMULTER@xxxxxxx> Subject: [regional_school] Why Boys Fail - interview with Richard Whitmire To: regional_school@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Date: Thursday, March 18, 2010, 8:40 PM Wish I knew how to forward this interview video - you'll have to put the web address in your browser. It's definitely worth it! http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/whyboysfail/2010/03/cep_report_on_gender_gaps_released.html?print=1 Also: in the EducationWeek piece below, Jack Jennings, president and CEO of the Center on Education Policy - a Washington-based research and advocacy group that just released results of their gender gap study, says: “Something is going on in our schools holding back boys.” Yes, yes, yes!!!! And the why is so obvious to those of us with knowledge about brain development who've been closely observing PreK and Kindergarten classrooms over the past 15 years! Finally someone is speaking out and has found a national audience!! According to Richard Whitmire, it all started about 20 years when the Governors got together to upgrade standards! (Sound familiar?) Moving second grade literacy standards into Kindergarten back then did not take into account the hard wiring of the male brain! And it's just the tip of the iceberg! Education Week Published Online: March 17, 2010 Boys Trail Girls in Reading Across States By Erik W. Robelen A new study on gender differences in academic achievement, offering what it calls “good news for girls and bad news for boys,” finds that, overall, male students in every state where data were available lag behind females in reading, based on an analysis of recent state test results. At the same time, in mathematics, a subject in which girls have historically trailed, the percentages of both genders scoring “proficient” or higher were roughly the same, with boys edging out girls slightly in some states and girls posting somewhat stronger scores in others. In certain states, such as Arkansas, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Vermont, the gender gap for reading proficiency was 10 percentage points or higher, based on 2008 test data. “The most pressing issue related to gender gaps is the lagging performance of boys in reading,” says the report, released today by the Center on Education Policy , a Washington-based research and advocacy group. In a conference call with reporters, Jack Jennings, the group’s president and chief executive officer, noted that whether looking at student outcomes at the elementary, middle, or high school level, male rates of proficiency were lower than for females across all states studied in 2008. (Forty-five states had data available for all three levels.) “There is a consistent achievement gap,” he said. “Something is going on in our schools holding back boys.” The report does offer some encouragement for boys in reading, suggesting that as a group, they are making some gains over time, and that the gender gap has narrowed in many states. For instance, in 38 out of 44 states, the percentages of 4th grade boys scoring proficient or higher climbed between 2002 and 2008. Also, in 24 out of 44 states, the gender gap for 4th graders in the percentage of students scoring proficient or higher narrowed over that time period, though it widened in another 14 states. When looking at the data another way, however, based on changes in the average of test scores, the gaps between boys and girls in reading “widened across all three grade levels [elementary, middle, and high school] as often as they narrowed.” ‘Clear and Startling’ Differences The new report from the Center on Education Policy is part of a series of studies the organization has been conducting that examine trends on state tests since 2002, when the federal No Child Left Behind Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush. Math Percentage of Female and Male Students Proficient in Math on State Tests, 2008 Reading Percentage of Female and Male Students Proficient in Reading on State Tests, 2008 SOURCE: Center on Education Policy The center notes that one reason for the report’s focus on the rate of students deemed “proficient” is that the designation is the key indicator used to determine whether districts and schools have made adequate yearly progress under the federal law. However, as the report emphasizes, each state uses its own tests to gauge proficiency and also sets its own cutoff score for what it judges proficient. The report says that research has long noted historical differences in the achievement of boys and girls in reading and math, though considerable recent research suggests there is no longer a gender gap in math achievement. With its state-by-state analysis, the report is able to identify those states that appear to struggle the most with gender gaps in reading. In Arkansas, the gap was 13 percentage points at the elementary level and 14 percentage points at both middle and high school in 2008. On state tests in Hawaii that year, boys came in 14 percentage points behind at the elementary level, 13 in middle school, and 16 in high school. In the conference call, Mr. Jennings noted that even Massachusetts, a state known for its strong academic standards and performance, has a sizable gender gap, at 13 percentage points for elementary students in 2008. Some other states, however, such as Florida, Kansas, Nebraska, and Virginia, had much smaller reading gaps at all levels. In Virginia, for example, the gender gap for boys was 3 percentage points at the elementary and middle levels and just 1 percentage point in high school. In most cases, the gender gap in state math achievement did not exceed 5 percentage points, the 2008 data show. Susan B. Neuman, an education professor at the University of Michigan who specializes in literacy development, called the new study “an extraordinarily important document.” Ms. Neuman, a former U.S. assistant education secretary under President Bush who was invited to participate in the conference call but was not involved in the study, emphasized the findings with regard to boys’ achievement, noting that it is a relatively recent trend. “We’ve been talking about closing the achievement gap in so many different ways, ... but we have not focused on the gender gap, which is very clear and startling in this report.” She added, “I think we have to re-evaluate our curricula, re-evaluate how we are managing our classrooms.” Vol. 29, Issue 27 http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/03/17/27gender.h29.html?tkn=QUWFFACOCp9dRJixqIXUzDtAjsWu8TC2Ewmg&cmp=clp-edweek