How the Gender Gap in STEM Might Get Its Start in Elementary School

On average, girls do as well as boys on elementary and middle school math tests. But by the time students enter the workforce, a big gender gap has emerged, with men earning nearly 80 percent of bachelor’s degrees in engineering and computer science. A new study offers evidence that the disparity might be getting its start in elementary school classrooms. The paper offers data from a single district, but the pattern it uncovers is striking. Girls are less likely to be nominated for, selected for, and continue in the district’s advanced math program. Despite their comparable math scores, the program loses girls at every step — a phenomenon that could contribute to fewer women entering math-focused fields later in life.

How to Choose a Co-Teaching Model

Knowing the pros and cons of the six models of co-teaching can help teachers determine which one is best for a given lesson. Teachers who are assigned co-teaching roles often have little experience or training in co-teaching. Learning what works and what doesn’t often must come with experience. And teachers don’t always get to choose who they teach with, which adds an extra layer of challenge because it can leave the individuals’ roles in the lesson planning phase and during instruction blurry. Fortunately, a lot of available research categorizes different models of co-teaching.

Breaking SEL Down Into Manageable Practices

Most teachers agree that social-emotional learning is important, but teaching those skills in already crowded school day can be a daunting task. The cost—in both funding and time—can hinder schools from integrating social-emotional learning (SEL) into their daily activities, writes Arianna Prothero in EdWeek. The development of easy, quick practices that reinforce SEL allows for integration into a classroom’s curriculum and schedule, says Stephanie Jones, director of the Ecological Approaches to Social-Emotional Learning—or EASEL at Harvard University.

Social Contracts Foster Community in the Classroom

When students and teachers collaborate to create shared behavior expectations, the whole class is invested in the norms.