[regional_school] Re: Why Boys Fail - interview with Richard Whitmire
- From: neilcho@xxxxxxx
- To: regional_school@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:35:17 -0400
Hi everyone,
The issue of gender gaps discussed in the Richard Whitmire piece is a very
interesting phenomenon, and one that I've been aware of in a different context
for well over a decade.
If one just focuses on high-ability or high-achieving students, the gender gap
has been very evident for a very long time. In my job as a gifted ed teacher, I
was often struck by the gender biases of teachers as one factor in this
situation. When asked to select their best readers for an enrichment group in
language arts, the 1st and 2nd grade teachers in my school (all females) would
collectively pick a cohort of students who were 80-90% girls. And when asked to
do the same for math/science, they would pick a group that was 70-80% boys.
While I recognized their choices might have been somewhat reflective of the
performance of students in their classes (or not), I felt it important to press
them to try to balance their choices. But this proved harder than I expected.
In fact, despite repeated discussions about this issue, I still had to remind
teachers of this disparity every year for 15 years, on the assumption that
their choices in this matter were also sending a message to students about
gender roles and expectations.
The most interesting aspect of this situation, however, emerged in a comparison
of this teacher-selected group versus the group of students who received
enrichment in 5th grade, where participation depended on performance on a
variety of indicators (pre-assessments, standardized tests, portfolio work,
etc.) that were used to identify students, with only a minor role played by
teacher opinion. Using this identification model, the children identified for
language arts enrichment ranged from 60-70% girls, while in the 1990s, the
numbers were reversed for math. (Note: This led to a set of girls-only groups
in math and science, both at a few Penfield schools and at institutions of
higher learning, like RIT and U of R.) However, starting around 2000, I began
to notice that while the gender numbers did not change for language arts, but
began to change for math. In fact, from 2003 to my retirement 2009, we ran 6
5th grade math enrichment groups per year (with re-identification for each
group) and I never had a group that was over 50% boys. I had several that were
50-50, but most were predominantly girls, ranging from 55% to a high of 90% in
one instance.
As a result of these experiences, I began to question what was happening to our
boys in school and, in a larger sense, in our culture. Was it a question of
"boyness" being in conflict with the culture and behavioral expectations of
school? Was it a question of curricular changes that fit the developmental
patterns of girls better than boys (as posited by this article)? Was it a
question of adult gender expectations and biases? Or, lastly, was it a question
of gender enculturation and shifts outside of school that made boys less
successful in school than previous boys AND/OR current girls (not the same
thing, and something that needs to be parsed out)? I didn't have any way to
produce a definitive answer to any of these questions, but I was pretty sure we
had to do something to respond to this widening gap.
In light of the last paragraph, I think it is obvious that one of my quibbles
with the depiction offered by the Richard Whitmire interview is the assumption
that "something is happening in schools" to cause all this. He may be right,
but I think it is an open question whether this is the root cause. Moreover, as
a secondary quibble, I find it strange that his analysis is founded on state
tests and their definitions of proficiency (which he points out are flawed, and
then uses anyway). Equally, I find it a frightening trend that all educational
systems and many educational researchers seem to have bought into the NCLB
assumption that the quality of education, in any of its programs or dimensions,
can be defined by how well America's schools are meeting some kind of minimum
standard. For many of our children, this is simply a disaster. I can tell you
that the children I taught, and many others I met in full-class push-in
enrichment units, should be labeled as failing in relation to their talents and
achievements if all they could do is achieve a proficiency level on state
tests. Or, to put it another way, our schools should be deemed as failing a
large number of their students if all they do is get as many children as
possible to that proficiency level.
Whatever position one takes on all these issues, it is paramount to remember
that education is about the distance a child travels in skills, understandings,
and mental/emotional development from where they began to where they end up. It
is not about meeting a standard, since for some that requires too long a trip
(in the time allotted) and for others it requires no trip at all.
Thanks for listening.
Best, Neil
-----Original Message-----
From: NSMULTER@xxxxxxx
To: regional_school@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thu, Mar 18, 2010 8:40 pm
Subject: [regional_school] Why Boys Fail - interview with Richard Whitmire
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!
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
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