By Catherine Cuellar, KERA Reporter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-618579.mp3
Dallas, TX –
Host: Some parents and their daughters have found a way to avoid the distraction presented by boys at school. They're enrolling in an increasing number of all-girls public schools opening in Texas. The first was the Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women's Leadership School in Dallas. KERA's Catherine Cuellar talked to students and educators there about why the experience works.
Catherine Cuellar, KERA Reporter: In the three years since it opened, the first all-female public school in the state of Texas has more than tripled its enrollment and relocated from its original campus in Oak Lawn to Fair Park. It started as a middle school and now has grades 6 through 11. Principal Vivian Taylor and art teacher Katie Tharp are preparing for students' return.
Vivian Taylor: This is our art room here and one of the things that started last year, and I asked Miss Tharp if she would be willing to do this is to have what we called an art gallery exhibition.
Cuellar: Tharp, who holds a master's degree in art education, jumped at the chance to teach at the Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women's Leadership School.
Katie Tharp, art teacher: Being in a field that's sort of female dominated I see kind of the advantage that I've had in my own education because in graduate school I was in predominantly female classes and that's when I started to realize how much of a difference it really can make and how much more I was willing to challenge myself, even at the graduate level just in a single gender environment.
Cuellar: About 250 public schools have offered single-gender studies since a court ruling made it legal a decade ago. Meg Moulton, co-executive director of the National Coalition of Girls Schools, says all-female classes have helped girls academically. Graduates from an all-girls school are more likely to defy tradition and pursue subjects like match and science.
Meg Moulton: In math & science we did a study of 4200 alums and asked them what their majors were in college. 13% majored in math, science, engineering, and technology and that compares to 10% men and 2% women nationally.
Cuellar: Moulton says junior high is the best time to begin single gender education. Tharp has seen her students gain confidence.
Tharp: They seem to feel free to either act as young or as old or as smart or as unsure as they feel. They don't seem to feel the need to put up a front or act like something other than what they are.
Cuellar: Noni Thomas says that's one reason she enrolled at the Rangel school three years ago. She's taking advantage of everything, including math and science. She plays four sports, has traveled out of state for an apprenticeship, and as a junior this year, she'll take Advanced Placement English and history classes.
Thomas: It was easier because usually most girls in class they don't answer 425 questions because they feel that if they get it wrong, the boys in the class will laugh because they didn't get the right answer. Now that we're here we don't have to worry about if we get the wrong answer. It's like OK, we're going to help you get it right next time so when we have this test we're going to get it all right together.
Cuellar: That camaraderie may be one reason the school's academic rating improved from recognized to exemplary last year. Thomas says that her all-girls school has changed the way she sees boys, and that's a good thing.
Thomas: When I first came here I was like, "Oh no, I'm going to be this total outcast because I don't hang out with boys." After school I go to Madison and play sports with boys and now that I'm here it doesn't matter anymore. You see them. They're there. Who cares?
Cuellar: The freedom to take chances without distractions from boys seems to create a healthy environment for learning and growing up.
Catherine Cuellar, KERA News.
Host: Another all-female public school in the state of Texas, named for the late governor Ann Richards, will open in Austin this month, and public schools for young women are also planned for San Antonio, Houston, and Lubbock.