School district works to reduce gender imbalance in gifted math classes

Submitted by Mastodon on Thu, 2014-03-13 20:47

Story here. Excerpt:

'With a gender imbalance showing in its gifted math classes, Deerfield Public Schools District 109 board members discussed ideas to reverse the disparity Monday at their regularly scheduled meeting.

“I was surprised,” Superintendent Michael Lubelfeld said. “We don’t like it and we want to fix it.”

”There are 120 more boys in TAP [the gifted math program] than girls,” board member Scott Kluge said. “In some schools it’s 10 to 1.”

The gifted program is for select third- through eighth-graders, and ratios vary between the four elementary and two middle schools in the district, according to Director of Learning and Assessment Services Amy Rubin.

“It’s three to one in some schools and two to one in others,” Rubin said.'

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... it isn't like a Title IX thing where either the number of boys is reduced because there "aren't enough girls", or boys get bumped from classes even if they are mathematically-gifted because the administration wants an equal or near-equal number of girls in the classroom. As for why, it's simple: really, STEM pays much better overall, particularly applied STEM such as EE, IT, Mech E., etc., and if any particular identifiable group of people is not getting exposure to at least a solid crack at those fields, it's bad for them, or it is to say, bad for their economic futures. It also means more student loan defaults as people major in non-paying degree programs in college; they default, the taxpayer is stuck with the bill. But I am categorically not OK with limiting some other group of people's similar shot at the same things merely because they aren't "like" the the other group.

I am however fine with determining composition of the class based on merit if necessary due to resource issues (there is only so much stuff to go around). If for example the school can encourage mathematically-gifted girls to pursue math despite it being "boyish" in their minds and those of their peers (all too often, their female peers, contrary to the claims of feminists) and there needs to be a screening of students due to resource constraints, then a test would probably be needed to keep things fair. The girls and boys alike ought to take the same test without any weighting or "freebies" based on the student's gender and the highest-scoring X number of students get in. If 60% of those students are girls, so be it. If 60% boys, so be it. That's how it ought to be, anyway.

Not sure how that'll be what happens, though.

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Submitted by Matt on Sat, 2014-03-15 19:24

I recall meeting a male teacher at a local gifted program here in Edmonton about 7 years ago. They had same problem in Gr 3 with 10 boys + 1 girl. They were so happy when another girl joined!

But the same thing happened. More girls were admitted as they got older but it tended to be artistic skills like violin, piano or voice - not really about STEM math or science subjects.

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Submitted by fathers4fairness on Sat, 2014-03-15 21:24