Gender Learning Bias in Schools

I must admit that this study raises some very interesting questions about teaching and learning.

He Taught, She Taught - Gender May Matter - Study: Kids Benefit From Same-Sex Teachers by BEN FELLER, Associated Press:

Dee's study is based on a nationally representative survey of nearly 25,000 eighth-graders that was conducted by the Education Department in 1988. Though dated, the survey is the most comprehensive look at students in middle school, when gender gaps emerge, Dee said.

He examined test scores as well as self-reported perceptions by teachers and students.

Dee found that having a female teacher instead of a male teacher raised the achievement of girls and lowered that of boys in science, social studies and English.

Looked at the other way, when a man led the class, boys did better and girls did worse.

The study found switching up teachers actually could narrow achievement gaps between boys and girls, but one gender would gain at the expense of the other.

Dee also contends that gender influences attitudes.

For example, with a female teacher, boys were more likely to be seen as disruptive. Girls were less likely to be considered inattentive or disorderly.

In a class taught by a man, girls were more likely to say the subject was not useful for their future. They were less likely to look forward to the class or to ask questions.

As you can see, female teachers finding boys disruptive may explain the increase in boys being labeled special education students given that 80% of the teaching profession is women. The study also adds fuel to the fires of one-upsmanship for grades and so on in highly competitive communities.

But what's puzzling about this article are the following assertions by Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association.

"Students benefit by having exposure to teachers who look like them, who can identify with their culture ... but this is just one variable among many," Weaver said.

Dee said his research raises valid questions. Should teachers get more training about the learning styles of boys and girls? Should they be taught to combat biases in what they expect of boys and girls?

In the nature-nurture debate, he said, teacher gender belongs.

I am not aware of any study that asserts teachers who look like their students improve educational outcomes. The article offers no basis for this claim.

The Banality of Education

The No Child Left Behind legislation is patent nonsense. Fundamentally is an attempt at implementing a category error in judgement. The American public has allowed a rogue Republican administration to run amok with school policies, the worst of which is NCLB.

In this recent article, CNN reports on another false consequence of NCLB, that schools do not have competent teachers in place - yet another exagerrated hoax.

Education law leaves children behind
'The day of reckoning is here, and it's not going to pass'Friday, May 12, 2006; Posted: 11:02 p.m. EDT (03:02 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Not a single state will have a highly qualified teacher in every core class this school year as promised by President Bush's education law. Nine states along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico face penalties.

This article like most discussions about education fall into the category error trap. By accepting the premises and phony metrics of NCLB, the discussion never elevates itself out of the Alice in Wonderland rhetoric that spawned the legislation.
In the hallucinogenic world of NCLB, schools and teachers are measured with tests that produce numbers that have no real value except those assigned by the Bill Bennetts of this world. Frank Rich of the NYTimes talks instructively about Bennett here as being a "bloviator in chief" to this administration. I agree.

St Joseph's College recently held a conference reported by the Courant.
It talks about Connecticut's law suit and dissent from the law. But no one talks about the yellow elephant in the room, the fact that NCLB is pure, unadulterated bullshit. It is unworthy of intelligent discussion except to gracefully eliminate it.

Most disturbing is the lack of professionalism and honesty that allowed NCLB to become law. The CNN article has this quote, "At some point there was, I suspect, a little bit of notion that 'This too shall pass,' " said Henry Johnson, the assistant secretary over elementary and secondary education. "Well, the day of reckoning is here, and it's not going to pass."

The entire educational community no longer gives a care about education at all. There is virtually no discussion anymore about improving schools with innovative curriculums or ideas - just conformity to tests and "fixing" a fraudulent program of dismantling our public schools. Teachers now cynically go along to get along and assume "this too shall pass". There is no aching appetite for innovation, quality, or change - too many bad ideas have poisoned the process.

Teachers should stop lecturing students about courage, individuality, creativity, and other subjects requiring the exercise of human dignity. That is, unless those teachers and administrators are willing to exercise those qualities themselves. The first step in rehabilitating the profession might be to take a stand.

The hiring process

A very nice article here about the expectations of teaching in the coming years and what administrators need to do to make the process effective. From the above link;

Teachers Wanted: Must be Prepared for Constant Change and Re-Training and In- servicing for the Rest of their Careers
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Delia Stafford
Haberman Foundation

TOP TEN ADMONISHMENTS TO SCHOOL HIRING OFFICIALS

1. Be Honest. Discuss your students, discuss the resources that teachers have, and discuss the turnover rate in your district and be selective in who you hire

2. Be Up-Front- Talk about the morale at the current time and your guesses, hunches and beliefs for the future.

3. Be Sincere- School systems want and need teachers and hiring officials should reflect this. But also indicate that teachers are expected to coach, do the school newspaper, sponsor the cheerleaders, be assistant track coaches, help with the chess time, and the school year book, just the hem of the list..

4. Stay honest!. Applicants at Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado , may know what transpired there a few years back. But there may have been incidents in Idaho , or California or other states in the Union . Should applicants be aware of these things? We will leave this to the reader to decide, remembering always, our prisons are full of Kinder Kids...someone perhaps could have said a kind word, somewhere,sometime,even changed the direction of a child even if the "parents appeared to have little or no interested". IT ONLY TAKES ONE TEACHER, ONE TEACHER WITH THE RIGHT STUFF, TO CHANGE THE LIFE OF A CHILD !

5. And 5 th ,no hiring official can take the fifth amendment!

6. Be Realistic- No hiring official can predict what will occur over the next 5, 10 or 15 years. During the Reagan administration, no one could have predicted that " A Nation At Risk " might evolve into No Child Left Behind. One should not be optimistic, nor pessimistic, but realistic.

7. Be Up Front- Often teachers are hired at the last minute (I know I was.and not once but twice) and hiring officials need to be wise, prudent and judicious about what they say to recently hired teachers. If classroom management is paramount and important, that needs to be communicated. If " full inclusion" is the order of the day, that needs to be stated. If sports, and homecoming events and the like are the most important items on the agenda, let that be said.

8. Be sure to mention " Highly Qualified" and what that may mean today, tomorrow and years down the road. I suspect that teachers are going to have to undergo much more rigorous training in the future as the world becomes more complex and teachers more accountable to get pay raises

9. Be cautious, since student's lives are literally in the hands of teachers. Witness the recent teacher who compared George Bush to Hitler. Well, any straight thinking Martian knows that Hitler had a moustache and George Bush does not. But in all seriousness, one wonders about the malleable, shapeable minds of children and what the rantings and ravings of some individual might do to the thinking processes of children and adolescents. And witness a teacher in Florida who apparently had some type of sexual alliance with a student. How will that student's emotional and psychological life be affected by this alleged " bi-polar" teacher who cannot seem to gratify her urges appropriately.

10 BEWARE ! on both sides of the desk when asking questions to determine "who to hire"!!!!. THE FAINT OF HEART NEED NOT APPLY!

Dumbing Down the Teaching Profession, Part Deux

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. Now, NCLB will be used as an instrument to weed out teachers who aren't teaching to the test. One would think, given the empirical evidence, that the teacher's unions would have spent some time working to eradicate NCLB from litany of national disgraces the Bush administration has visited upon us.

But NOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooo..............

Check this out:

Who's Really Fit To Teach?
`No-Child' Report Questions Teacher Skills
April 4, 2006
By ROBERT A. FRAHM, Courant Staff Writer

"The U.S. Department of Education has issued a new monitoring report that throws into question the qualifications of more than 13,000 teachers, about 30 percent of the state's public school teaching force, state officials say.

State education officials have vowed to challenge the report's conclusion that many teachers - especially older elementary teachers and those teaching social studies and special education classes - do not meet the criteria established under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The findings, to be outlined at a State Board of Education meeting this week, could mean that even some of the state's most highly regarded teachers would have to undergo job reviews or possibly even take tests or further training to demonstrate their competence."