What’s gender got to do with it?

Emily Paige • Cahn Fellow 2023

What happens when a school’s years of work on developing a supportive environment for its male students results in girls feeling disproportionately unseen, unsafe and unheard?

What’s Gender Got To Do With It? is our school’s journey in understanding the ways in which we learned to build an environment that supports all students. For years, our school focused deeply on developing an environment to support our Black Male students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). Our Black Male students with IEPs had higher suspension rates and lower academic outcomes. We had much success in reducing the suspension rates of our boys, overall, and engaging our boys in classes more consistently, leading to higher achievement and a stronger sense of belonging by our boys. But, as we dug deeper into our data, we discovered that an unintended consequence to that work was that our female students felt less seen and less sense of belonging. This project outlines how we discovered this, what we did about it, and how we continue to strive to ensure that our school is a place where everyone truly has a seat at the table.