Nina B Hollis Institute for Educational Reform

In the past five years, there has been an extraordinary surge of interest in single-sex public education. The new regulations published on October 25 2006, which facilitate single-sex education in public schools, have significantly stoked this interest. Unfortunately, this exuberance has led some school districts to plunge into experimentation with this format without a thorough grounding in the complexities of gender differences in how girls and boys learn (Sax, 2007). The Nina B. Hollis Institute for Educational Reform is proud to offer a two day workshop featuring Dr. Leonard Sax, the author of Why Gender Matters. Dr. Sax's two-day presentation highlights scientific research on gender differences as well as specific educational strategies aimed at raising student achievement scores. This workshop is appropriate for educators teaching in single-gender classrooms, planning to teach in single gender classrooms, and educators of mixed gender classrooms seeking to enhance the teaching practices.

Advocates of single-sex education do NOT believe that "all girls learn one way and all boys learn another way." On the contrary, we cherish and celebrate the diversity among girls and among boys. We understand that some boys would rather read a book than play football. We understand that some girls would rather play football rather than play with Barbies. Educators who understand these differences can inspire every child to learn to the best of her or his ability. Conversely, educators and parents are recognizing that all too often, coeducational settings actually reinforce gender stereotypes via the process that researchers call "gender intensification." Boys at coed schools will tell you "poetry is for girls." Girls at coed schools will tell you that computer science is for boys. The good news is that the gender-separate format can boost grades and test scores for BOTH girls and boys. However, that improvement doesn't happen automatically. Just putting girls in one room and boys in another is no guarantee of success. As with anything else in education, adequate preparation in proven, evidence-based strategies is key (Sax, 2007)