Are Males Students Dropped Out or Pushed Out?! Wendell Rodgers, The Citadel Stephenie Hewett, The Citadel

Bad Boys By Walter Dean

Purpose of the Workshop To take a realistic look at what is happening to our male students in our educational systems today?

The Dropout Crisis Research proves that students who are repeatedly suspended are at a significantly higher risk of quitting school than those who are not suspended repeatedly. The term “dropouts” for these students fails to articulate the extent of the number of students who are being “pushed out” because of administrative expedience, discrimination, and other reasons. SOURCE: “Reclaiming Michigan’s Throwaway Kids: Students Trapped in the School to Prison Pipeline”. Report from the ACLU of Michigan. June 24, 2009.

Definitions Drop Out: – Webster: One who quits school – Our definition – One who schools have quit on. Pushed Out: – Webster: To press forward or advance away from the inside despite difficulty. – Our definition – One that schools make it difficult to stay in

What We Know!

What the Research Says (Gurian, 2001) Males: –earn seventy percent (70%) of D’s and F’s and fewer than half of the A’s, –account for two-thirds of learning disability diagnoses, –represent ninety percent (90%) of discipline referrals, –dominate such brain-related learning disorders as ADD/ADHD, with millions now medicated in schools, –make up eighty percent (80%) of the high school dropouts, and –make up fewer than forty percent (40%) of college students.

More Research! The Organization for Economic Co- operation and Development (OECD) studied males’ and females’ knowledge and skills for 3 years in industrialized countries including the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan and found that girls performed better than boys academically in the thirty-five (35) countries.

Brain Research Male Brains: – have more cortical areas dedicated to spatial- mechanical functioning making many boys want to move objects through space, like balls, model airplanes, or just their arms and legs. –Use, on average, half the brain space that females use for verbal-emotive functioning. Most boys, although not all of them, will experience words and feelings differently than girls do. (Blum, 1997; Moir & Jenssel, 1989)

Brain Research Continued: Male Brains: –have less serotonin than girls have, but they also have less oxytocin, the primary human bonding chemical. This makes it more likely that they will be physically impulsive and less likely that they will sit still and empathetically chat with a friend (Moir & Jessel; 1989, Taylor,2002).

More Information on the Brain! Males: –lateralize brain activity. Their brains not only operate with less blood flow than girls’ brains, but they are also structured to compartmentalize learning. Females: –multitask better than boys do, with fewer attention span problems and greater ability to make quick transitions between lessons (Havers, 1995).

Male Brains Male brains: –Are set to renew, recharge, and reorient itself by entering what neurologists call a rest state. The boy in the back of the classroom whose eyes are drifting toward sleep has entered a neural rest state. It is predominantly boys who drift off without completing assignments, who stop taking notes and fall asleep during a lecture, or who tap pencils or otherwise fidget in hopes of keeping themselves awake and learning.

Female Brains Females tend to recharge and reorient neural focus without rest states. Thus, a girl can be bored with a lesson, but she will nonetheless keep her eyes open, take notes, and perform relatively well. This is especially true when the teacher uses more words to teach a lesson instead of being spatial and diagrammatic.

Males and Words The more words a teacher uses, the more likely boys are to “zone out”, or go into rest state. The male brain is better suited for symbols, abstractions, diagrams, pictures, and objects moving through space than for the monotony of words (Gurian, 2001).

Biggest Barrier for Males? Barrier is defined as something that prevents someone from reaching their maximum potential No feeling of connection between the student and the teachers The learning styles of males are rarely addressed The environments and attitudes are not discussed Males do not see how education fits into their lives

Everybody’s Needs Males’ Needs Mentors/guidesSuccess Competition for motivation Hands on activities Meaningful and relevant activities Relationships with teachers Preparation to enter postsecondary institutions and/or workforce Consistency in mentors with GUTS A clear definition of success To be taught how to compete Not to be taught how to eat a fish but how to catch a fish To be taught how to sit down and be quiet, follow directions Someone with innovative ideas to reach them rather than just teach them Guest speakers and others coming from similar environments

What We Got!

The Research says: African-American males: – lead the nation in homicides both as victims and perpetrators (2004, Skolnick and Currie) Have arrests, incarcerations, and convictions that top the charts in most states (1994, Skolnick and Currie) More than 25% of the African-American males age 20 today are likely to go to prison some time in their lives (2005, Chapman) Over 50% of the inmates in US prisons and jails are African-American males (2005, Chapman) More than 50% of the death row inmates are African- American males (2005, Chapman) Have the fastest growing suicide rate (2000, Poussaint and Alexander)

The Research Continues: African American Males: Have contacted HIV and Aids at a faster rate than any other segment of the population (2000, Auerbach, Krimgold, and Lefkowitz) Have average life expectancy of 68.8 years compared with 75.7 for white males (2005, Chapman) Have the highest probability of dying the first year of life (2000, Auerbach et al) Have death rates for college-age Black males twice that of college-age White Males. (2005, Chapman)

Academically African-American Males: –Are 3 times more likely than White males to be labeled as mentally retarded (2005, Chapman) –Are twice as likely to be labeled emotionally disturbed (2005, Chapman) –Have college graduation rates lower than any other group (2005, Chapman) –Have increasing high school dropout rates (2005, Chapman)

What the Research Says (Gurian, 2001) Males: –earn seventy percent (70%) of D’s and F’s and fewer than half of the A’s, –account for two-thirds of learning disability diagnoses, –represent ninety percent (90%) of discipline referrals, –dominate such brain-related learning disorders as ADD/ADHD, with millions now medicated in schools, –make up eighty percent (80%) of the high school dropouts, and –make up fewer than forty percent (40%) of college students.

More Research! The Organization for Economic Co- operation and Development (OECD) studied males’ and females’ knowledge and skills for 3 years in industrialized countries including the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan and found that girls performed better than boys academically in the thirty-five (35) countries.

Graduation Rate Differences 56% African-American females graduate from high school – 43% African-American males graduate 9% more Hispanic females graduate than Hispanic males 5% more white females graduate than white males 3% more Asian females graduate than males

College Graduation Rates 57% of BA’s earned by females 58% of master’s degrees earned by females 37% African American Males enroll in college and fewer graduate

US Dept of Education estimates that if the current trend continues By 2020, there will be 156 females to every 100 males receiving college degrees.

Where We Go!

Collaboration: Coming together for student success. Coming together for student success.

Collaboration is not: Doing what you have always done, Social Promotion, Lowering the standards, Thinking that all students learn the same way, Feeling OK that the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing, Flying by the seat of your pants.

Collaboration is: Feeling that we are working towards a solution, Knowing that you are not alone, Realizing that one of us is not as smart as all of us, Substituting we for I, Doing what we feel is best for the student, Input

Collaboration is Important Because none of us is as good as all of us.

Collaboration Together we can make and provide opportunities to make a difference for our young men.

If you get males early enough and work with them long enough, The opportunities for success are great!

Our males’ needs must be Addressed by all of us and not just one of us.

If we fail to collaborate, then we fail Joe Cool!

Sources Blum, D. (1997). Sex on the brain: The biological differences between men and women. New York: Viking. Moir,A. and Jessel, D. (2000). Brain sex: The real difference between men and women. New York: Dell Publishing. Taylor, S. (2002). The Tending Instinct. Times Books. Havers, F. (1995). Rhyming tasks male and female brains differently. The Yale Herald, Inc. New Haven, CT: Yale University. Gurian, M. and Stevens, K. (2004). With boys and girls in mind. Closing Achievement Gaps, 62, 3,

Sources “Reclaiming Michigan’s Throwaway Kids: Students Trapped in the School to Prison Pipeline”. Report from the ACLU of Michigan. June 24, International Boys’ Schools Coalition Presentation by Abigail Norfleet James, Ph.D. Educational Learning Specialist, Rockhouse Associates and Joseph Cox, Ph.D. Headmaster, The Haverford School, Haverford, PA