| |
2003 Single-Sex
Conference
Our first conference took place in August 2003 in Washington D.C.
For information about our second conference -- which took place October 8 - 10, 2005, in Cincinnati/Covington -- please go to this link.
The program for our first conference on single-sex education in public schools is shown below.
When: Friday, August 22, 2003
Where: The National Press Club, 529 14th Street NW, 13th
Floor, Frank Holeman Conference Room Washington DC
Morning session: making the transition from coed school to
single-sex academy
9:15 Welcome and Introduction
Our morning session will feature the three principals who have
led the most successful conversions of public schools to single-sex
public academies:
9:30 Ben Wright, former Principal, Thurgood
Marshall Elementary
10:15 George Smitherman, former Principal, Moten
Elementary
11:00 Wayne Commeford, Principal, James
Lyng High School
Each of these schools is a regular public school (not a charter)
located in a low-income district of a large city. At each of
these schools, test scores were low and discipline problems
were rampant. At each of these schools, a courageous principal
made the decision to re-invent the school as a single-sex academy:
girls in girls-only classrooms, boys in boys-only classrooms.
At each of these schools, the results of the transformation
were dramatic: in each case, test scores soared, students'
attitudes towards learning improved, and discipline problems
ebbed.
11:45 Panel discussion: Do some teaching strategies work better
for girls, and others for boys? Are there gender-specific techniques
for classroom management?
Panelists will include Ben Wright, George Smitherman, Wayne
Commeford, as well as Martha Cutts, head of the Upper School
of the
National Cathedral School for Girls, and Christopher Wadsworth,
executive director of the
International Boys' Schools Coalition.
12:45: Lunch will be provided (the cost of lunch is included
in your registration fee -- see below)
Afternoon session: the promise and the future of single-sex
public schools
1:15 Leonard
Sax, Director, NASSPE
More Than Just Test Scores: non-academic benefits of
single-gender education.
Non-academic benefits of single-sex education include:
broader educational horizons. Girls in single-sex classrooms
are more likely to pursue interests in math, science, and
information technology. Boys in boys-only classrooms are more
likely to take subjects such as art, music, drama, cooking,
and foreign languages.
improved classroom management. Single-gender classrooms
are easier to manage, with fewer discipline problems, than
mixed classrooms -- provided that female teachers have received
appropriate professional training in the management of an
all-boys classroom!
lower risk of teenage pregnancy, as well as lower risk
of drug abuse
None of these benefits will show up on any standardized test.
2:15 Panel discussion on the future of single-sex public
schools:
Rosemary Salomone, professor of law and author of Same,
Different, Equal -- the most authoritative study of single-sex
education in the United States -- will begin the panel discussion
with an overview of the new regulations governing single-sex
education in public schools in the United States
Maureen Grogan, executive director of the Young Women's
Leadership Foundation, will talk about single-sex public schools
"in the pipeline"
Whitney Ransome, Co-Executive Director,
National Coalition of Girls' Schools
Nora Kizer Bell, President of
Hollins University
Among other topics, the panelists will consider the pros and
cons of the "dual academy" -- a single campus or
building with girls in girls-only classrooms and boys in boys-only
classrooms -- compared with the traditional single-sex school,
with only girls (or boys) on the campus. They will also consider
strategies for marketing single-gender education to students
and to parents.
3:45 Concluding remarks and audience questions
Registration Information
If you would like to register for the conference, please send
a check or money order for $75 payable to NASSPE at National
Association for Single Sex Public Education, 19710 Fisher
Avenue, Post Office Box 108, Poolesville, Maryland, 20837.
If you prefer to use a credit card, you can call us at 301
972 7600, or send a fax to 301 972 8006. Either way, be sure
to give us your name, address, daytime phone number, and e-mail
address so we can reach you with last-minute updates. If you
plan to attend, please register NOW -- seating is limited,
and the conference is filling up quickly.
Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
