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LAUSD OKs Girls-Only STEM School, Plans Boys-Only English Language Arts School
theodp writes: Citing statistics that showed a whopping 46 more boys than girls passed the AP Computer Science Exam in 2011-12, the 640,000+ student Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) on Tuesday approved a waiver to enable the District to operate a single-gender, all-girls STEM School called the Girls Academic Leadership Academy (GALA). Students in GALA will follow a six year sequence of computer courses starting in middle school that will culminate in AP Computer Science Principles. "Fewer females take AP courses in math, science, or computer science, and they are not as successful as males in receiving passing scores of 3, 4 or 5," argued the General Waiver Request (PDF, 700+ pages). "An all girls environment is reasonably necessary for the school to improve the self-confidence of girls in their academic abilities, especially in STEM areas where an achievement gap currently exists. GALA's admissions shall also comply with AB 1266 to ensure male students who identify as female are admitted to the school." The school's CS-related Partners include the UCLA Exploring Computer Science Program, as well as Google-bankrolled Girls Who Code, Black Girls Code, and NCWIT. One of the reasons the all-girls STEM school reportedly got the green light is that its backers satisfied federal regulations requiring a "substantially equal school" for excluded male students by submitting a plan for a companion all-boys school that would emphasize English Language Arts, where they often fall short of girls' test scores, rather than GALA's focus on STEM. One suspects the no-fan-of-gender-restricted-public-schools ACLU may call BS on this maneuver.
Why would view a program intended to help girls as a put-down on men?
I'm all for programs like this. Give it a try, see what the outcome is. If it fails, end it and start the next experiment. If there are successes, tweak the program and continue.
Is there really a focus only on girls? They are building a school for boys that address their weak areas too. It seems like there is an effort to educate all children, part of which is recognizing that children (and genders) are different and thus have different needs.
Do you have an alternative plan to address these issues? It seems like you don't really understand them, since you talk about children being able to choose their subjects which really isn't the problem at all.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
We have those already; they're called "charter schools." Here in Atlanta, anyone can attend the charter schools in theory, but in practice the white parents are the ones who sign their kids up, so the charter school ends up 70+% white and the regular public school (that serves the same neighborhood) ends up 80+% black.
(By the way: yes, those are real numbers; I looked them up.)
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Do not confuse "does not want to learn" with "discouraged from learning." Typically females are discouraged from entering science and engineering and it starts at an early age.
Based on my experiences at work, there are lots of 'boys' that really don't give a damn and would have been happier in other careers anyway.
I'm actually in favor of gender-segregated junior high schools, mainly because of the showboating that goes on due to the hormones. It's been demonstrated that it's significantly curtailed when the other gender isn't present to display toward.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Typically females are discouraged from entering science and engineering and it starts at an early age.
This is the opposite of what I have seen. Both the schools and many parents try hard to push girls into STEM. It is the girls themselves that are disinterested. The discouragement comes from their peers, not from "the system".
There has been a lot of research into this topic. Wikipedia has a good overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
TL;DR there is no difference between men and women in general. In some specific areas there are small variations, such as higher variability (but the same average) on IQ tests for men. The old "men have better spacial awareness" thing isn't quite right either; men are better are mentally rotating objects, women have better spacial memory. Ultimately though the differences are fairly minor and subject to a huge amount of variation from individual to individual, and gender itself is far from binary.
It's actually quite easy to see that claims about certain genders "naturally" preferring certain things are bogus. Maths used to be considered a male subject, but girls now outperform boys at school. Something social changed for them to overtake boys. In Japan basketball is much more popular with girls at school than boys, but in other countries it's the exact opposite.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
As a father of two boys in their early/pre teens, I call bullshit. I have never heard of any movements to direct my kids into any fields that they don't naturally gravitate to. In fact at a recent high school meeting, I was encouraged to send my child to vo-tech since he doesn't seem to be interested in high school (he is doing poorly in English and Spanish, practically straight As in Algebra and Chemistry), but he's a boy, so he should go fix cars and do plumbing, not STEM, never STEM.
Perhaps you don't see the sexism because you don't have boys at that age, but as someone who does, and lives in a liberal state, I can see for sure that it happens against boys as much as for girls.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Watch a couple of minutes of this: https://youtu.be/2BzDmZHYCrw?t...
I linked to the right place for you. Those are real girls, with real experiences. They are being discouraged by a variety of factors. I'm afraid your anecdote is not data, but the study that video is based on absolutely is.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I'm a real girl with real experiences.
I was made fun of for being a nerd as a kid, and therefore "discouraged" from it... but the male nerds were made fun of just the same.
As a child, I got special treatment and encouragement from teachers for being a female that was into STEM type stuff. I remember getting into all sorts of special events and programs for girls while the males that were just the same were excluded. I remember getting all sorts of support because my mom resented my "ungirlyness" - but there was no support for the male nerds with fathers bullying them for not being "manly" enough and into sports and such.
As a teenager, I also got encouragement in the form of male attention (from the males into the same things) for being into it. I did not get attention from the males not into the same things... but the males did not get attention from females not into the same things.
As an adult, my gender is irrelevant until/unless I make it an issue. I know a lot of smart women that are not attractive... but it has nothing to do with them being smart; it has everything to do with them prioritizing intelligence based interests over keeping themselves looking attractive. People find them unattractive BEFORE realizing they are smart. (But would you really want to be with those people? Looks will fade for everyone eventually, so keep holding out for that rare person who's going to love you for your mind.)
EVERYONE is made fun of, EVERYONE is found attractive by certain people but not by others (especially if they don't try at the most common ideals of attractiveness)... male or female, it doesn't matter. To suggest that females deserve a "get out of everything free" card just for being female is sexist.