According to an Oct. 5 article by Los Angeles Times staff writer Connie Llanos, the only time the 750 students who attend Young Oak Kim Academy Middle School will be in a mixed-gender environment will be during lunch:
"This is yet another element of reform," school board President Monica Garcia said. "We have to try as many strategies as possible to see what helps our students excel and grow ... We cannot continue to do one-size-fits-all."
A three-year study conducted by Stetson University in Florida found that ... students in all-girl classes earned a 75 percent score, compared with 59 percent proficiency among girls in coed classes.
At YOKA, educators have taken the program a step further, creating separate lesson plans for boys and girls.
Because research shows that adolescent girls thrive in groups and learn well in lectures, teachers at YOKA assign the girls a lot of collaborative projects. There's also an emphasis on math, science and technology [for girls] because girls traditionally do not pursue these fields as aggressively as boys do.
Labels: single-sex education, public-schools
Posted By: Aspen/CRC
