ROCKPORT, Maine — Test scores are in and a boys-only classroom here saw significant learning gains.
“It’s a lot of growth,” said Theresa Lash, principal of Camden-Rockport Elementary School during a presentation on the experimental classroom to the school board Wednesday night.
The ACLU of Maine, meanwhile, which is working to shut down single-gender classrooms in the state, discounts the one-year academic gains and argues that such segregation is unconstitutional and perpetuates gender stereotypes.
On Wednesday, Lash pulled out a sheet of test scores that showed the 18 boys who elected to be in the single-gender class matched their peers’ reading test scores this year. The entire school’s third grade has 61 percent of students meeting the reading standard. The difference is that the students in mixed-gender classrooms scored a 58 percent achievement rate on the exam last year and the boys scored a 33. This means the boys improved by 28 percentage points and their peers only improved by three points.
In math the entire third grade jumped up by 16 percentage points. The boys class went from 56 percent of the students meeting the basic math standard to 72 percent. Their peers in the school improved from 42 to 58 percent in the last year.
“The feedback we’re getting from a variety of tests is that these boys are doing better in school,” Lash said to the school board. “When you look at anecdotal data from the students and parents it’s an overwhelmingly positive response.”
The small school tried a single-gender classroom when it realized that two-thirds of the third-graders would be boys. By separating out a third of the boys, it made the other two third-grade rooms evenly sexed. It also helped engage boys who may have been discouraged with school, the boys’ teacher said Wednesday night after the meeting.
A survey of parents who elected their boys to be in the male-only class all said that their boys had a successful school year.
“He wants to go to school every day. That is a success in itself. I think he’s more willing to take risks, get an answer wrong, and make mistakes while learning,” one parent wrote.
Curiously, when asked if they would enroll their boys in a single-gender class again, only a third of the parents said yes.
“It was worth doing — it did what we wanted to do, to make these boys more engaged in their education. It served its purpose, but there is no reason to continue it at this time. We don’t have the same needs next year,” Lash said at the meeting.
The school lost some of its male enrollment this year, according to assistant superintendent Elaine Nutter. Instead of separating out some boys, the school will try a new model of “team teaching” the fourth grade. Fourth-grade teachers will closely collaborate to share curriculums.
The boys’ teacher, Steve Seidell, agreed that the class served its purpose and the 18 boys he taught are ready to enter a gender-mixed environment again.
“I believe in mixed-gender classrooms but in this case the number of boys played a significant role on the tone of the classroom. It was about this group,” Seidell said, stressing the word “this.”
The group of boys chosen were developmentally lagging, but caught up to speed this year, he said.
“We wanted to give the boys a positive educational experience. Make them buy into school. They did,” Seidell said. “We did this to benefit all the kids. It helped everyone significantly. We think we got the boys on the right track now. Developmentally they were behind and they have come a long way.”
And the boys seemed happy about their time. In a survey of the boys, almost all of them said they’d like to be in a boys-only class again. The boys rated how they did this year on a scale of one to 10 — 10 being the best year of school ever — and the average was a nine.
When asked what they liked best, the boys said they were with their friends this year and “everyone liked the same things I did” and that games were geared to boys. The school also asked how this year was different than any other school year; the boys said there were no girls and it was the loudest class ever.
“I spent a lot of time developing experiential learning activities,” Seidell explained.
Those hands-on — and sometimes loud — activities included digging up “artifacts” that had been planted by the teacher from dirt near the school.
“We did things that would engage the boys and help them with their academics,” he said.
Seidell said he expects to reuse much of the curriculum next year in his mixed-gender third grade class.
Single-gender classrooms have their critics. This week, Sanford school district shut down its single-gender classroom after the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine sent it a letter threatening litigation. The ACLU of Maine believes classroom gender segregation is unconstitutional and perpetuates gender stereotypes, according to the organization’s executive director, Shenna Bellows.
Bellows said the reason the ACLU of Maine sent a letter to Sanford schools but not to the Rockport school was because it had not been aware that there was a boys-only class in the midcoast.
“We haven’t had time to investigate the situation in Rockport, but what we know from the media report is concerning. The idea girls can’t be active and the ‘normal boys’ can’t be quiet can be damaging. Children have the right to be educated based on their needs as individuals not their sex,” Bellows said. “Schools play a role in how students view themselves and others.”
Bellows also doubted that the school’s test results that showed the boys improved in math and reading actually meant much.
“You can’t take a single year and draw definitive conclusions and draw conclusions of single-sex education,” she said. “You have to look across the board and what researchers are finding is that these programs are not increasing academic performance.”
The ACLU of Maine contacted the school on Wednesday and began asking questions about the boys-only classroom, according to Lash.
Well, this will place a big target on Rockport Elementary School with the ACLU of Maine setting their sights squarely on this travesty…..there is no way it can tolerate the facts presented that these students are actually doing better in test scores….shame on this school for putting these segregated boys in a position to where they have become more engaged in their education and obviously better students…..really, on a serious note, congrats to those who have given the effort to show that some learning situations have benefits over others….kudos to the school, teachers and most of all the students…..well done……
I am surprised that it would make a difference in the third grade. On the other hand by 6th grade I can see it. My classmate Anna — who was 14 in the 7th grade, was a lot more interesting than square roots and pre algebra.
And can’t the ACLU find something better to do than stifle innovation?
The current education system is not designed for hands-on learning; hence, girls are generally achieving better results in our schools than boys. Camden-Rockport provided an innovative, intelligent approach to improving boys’ interest and achievements in the school setting.
I’m sick and tired of the now-accepted line of reasoning that boys and men always have it so good… There are now more women in law schools, med schools, and undergraduate programs than there are men. We need to focus on improving the performance of boys in our classrooms. This model seems to be one way in which to do this.
The ACLU is wayyy off base on this one. What’s wrong with a little ‘diversity’ in our education models, eh?
I was in the UMO Ed program in the 90s, at the height of PC. They would wring their hands at how boys did better at math and science than girls. It wasn’t an enormous gap, but it was there. But mention how girls did better than boys in language arts–and that gap was huge–and they would tell you to shhhh.
Is that something within the gender or something that we learn from society?
What about the boys who aren’t loud or the girls who like to dig in dirt? I really think that programs like these reinforce gender-specific stereotypes.
It’s a well known fact that “cooties” harms tests scores.
“there were no girls and it was the loudest class ever”
Now that’s what you call unexpected results!
:-) Just kidding ladies. As a guy, I know full well how loud a bunch of guys can get, especially when there’s no girls around.
ALCU argues that such segregation is unconstitutional and perpetuates gender stereotypes. All these kids did was do better on their test scores and they probably don’t understand what segregation is, they just want to go to school. its the non-parental adults making a stink. the kids are doing better- awesome the classes were given permission by the parents-awesome . The ALCU thinks these people were forced into this? sheesh~ boys and girls learn differently ,so why not at these early stages in life use these genetic differences to help them learn more? it was a option not a requirement. ALCU=Another-losing-classroom-upset, in my view the school found something that works in that age group and should stick with that. The ALCU should get their nose bent elsewhere.
We certainly wouldn’t want to have these boys learning in anything close to that which they will face in the real world working environment. No, no, schools shouldn’t be designed around that kind of thinking! It’s much better to design a fake world that divides people by their gender, right? What’s next? Maybe our schools should taking cues from the old Armor hot dogs commercial and begin dividing classes via tough kids, sissy kids, kids who climb on rocks…tall kids, short kids, even kids with chickenpox.
Ignore the enormous gains they made academically. The real story here is that they were in a non-PC gender segregated class. Man you just can NOT make this stuff up.
Once again proving that when the left claims that their only concern in education is “for the children”, that it is nothing but a bald faced lie.
Any gains seen here from instituting a fake world based on gender would easily be overshadowed by almost anything else based on the real world and logic, like say allowing schools to enforce “Real Discipline” plans within our schools. Of course if you’re of the absentee parenting ilk you can just go on thinking that it’s someone else’s fault that your little Johnny can’t read. Those darn lazy teachers, unions, ACLU, and of course those evil brain numbing/distractive GIRLS!
Thanks for showing once again that the kids come in last if they are considered at all. Meanwhile the darn lazy teachers, unions, and the ACLU continue to control the schools and students are learning less and less. But pay no attention to anything that actually improves student performance. Those real gains are overshadowed by the PC garbage and coddling of the teachers that is more important than learning in our schools. Man you just can NOT make this stuff up.
BTW – I’m all for enforcing discipline and making grades a true measure of learning instead of seat time promotions. And my little Johnny and Janey can both read quite well thanks to my involvement in their education. Johnny is making 6 figures less than a year after graduating from college in the top 10% of his class as an engineer and Janey is making as much with a medical MS degree.
Yes of course it’s someone else’s fault. Man I didn’t have to make it up, I could see you coming a mile away. Step down off your high horse and spend some time in your local schools, they’re always in need of substitutes. Then reality will smack you right in your saddle sore behind.
Why would it NOT be the fault of those “professional” educators who we are constantly told are so caring and dedicated that they work even more than the 6 1/2 hours a day and 36 1/2 weeks a year that they are in school.
Changing the subject from what obviously worked to whine about the merest hint of responsibility for the teachers? Man I could see that coming from a mile away. You need to teach your pony another trick, but that would involve teaching.
I don’t think it has anything to do with “distractive girls” as you call them. I think it has more to do with with how children learn. Boys one way girls another…
If the way this research was done is accurate, you can’t tell if gains are due to the different style of learning or the sex-segregated classroom.
This appears to be a badly flawed research design: http://pollways.bangordailynews.com/2012/06/22/other/bdn-and-rockpor-wrong-on-boys-only-classrooms/