There is a lot of talk about achievement gaps. The talk is usually centered around gaps between cultures, races, and socio-economic groups. There is alot of evidence for this, but are these arnt the only issues in the equality conflict. Boys, especially in reading, are getting out scored by girls as well. The point of this blog is not to identify the reasons for this problem, but more on possible solutions.
Should we separate boys and girls into by class rooms? No, that would be just like saying should we split hispanic and white students into different class rooms or we should split black and white students into different classrooms. In actuality, I think that is more of the goal in urban settings, to have more equity in schools through diversity. Differential instruction sounds like a good idea, but teachers have been supposedly using that for years. We have to look at the data to find the correct solution.
Some people of the class today seemed like they opposed the notion of research-driven interventions in schools. I guess from a broad view "the data" looks like a bad technique because of the issues of standardized scoring and bias on tests. However, I would like to ask those opposed to data-driven action what they would rather use. Something that is not supported by research?? Would you take medication that wasn't supported in the Lab first? Probably not. Would you use a certain instruction book that hasn't showed quality outcomes in research? So why would you want to instruct in a way that has not been supported.
Standardized testing has caused some issues because no test is perfect. This makes it hard to make "no child left behind" a reality. In the issues of boys, you might find research that shows quality results for differentiated sex classrooms. I'm sure you can also find research that shows that differentiated sex classrooms don't work well. Obviously somebody is worng, or they are measuring different things, or looking at it a different way. But the solution is not to throw the data out. The solution is actually to create more data to continually find better answers.