Casten trip announcement:
Fall sports update:
See page four for information about the upcoming Casten trips for next spring break and summer.
Updates on the cross country, field hockey, and girls’ tennis teams’ recent games and matches.
Dial
page 5
page 11
the
Hackley School
Tarrytown, NY 10591
October 2011 Vol. 113, No. 3
gender in balance? 9% 27%
History of Media
91%
AP Studio Art
52%
73%
English
48%
AP Chemistry
63%
37%
Gov’t and Politics
78%
22%
AP Computer Science
92%
8%
alexhersh
editorial editor hich class would you join if you were looking for a date? Students rarely choose a class for its gender balance, but the makeup of some classes significantly favors one gender over another. The attention Hackley students give that imbalance does not reflect the national attention and government legislation focused on the subject. Title IX legislation, passed in 1972, has changed gender inequities in education, yet students at Hackley simply shrug off any current gap.
VV STEM
Traditional male dominated lines of work include fields within sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Organizations of the STEM Education Coalition work to diversify the demographic of STEM professions and STEM topics in education. According to the Economic and Statistics Administration of the Department of Commerce, “Women fill close to half of all jobs in the U.S. economy, [yet] they hold less than 25 percent of STEM jobs.” Half of the female workforce in America is represented in STEM professions, while 75 percent of working men work within a STEM field. Some Hackley Science courses reflect this national trend, but show equality in the traditional female fields of life science, such as biology. The AP Biology class is balanced, while AP Physics has a seven to two male to female ratio. Based on the document issued by the National Board of Education, Women in America, “Female students generally score lower than male students in
mathematics assessment tests and higher in reading assessment tests.” The Board also says that, “this difference in gender participation in science and technology fields is a global phenomenon. OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] member countries reported that in the fields of humanities, arts, education, health and welfare, women comprised nearly two-thirds of graduates; however, in science and technology, females made up only about onequarter of graduates.” Diana Kaplan’s AP Calculus AB course, with an equal balance of boys and girls, does not support this trend.
dominated. It’s not a ‘girl’ type of course.” According to the White House Council on Women and Girls, women make up less than a fourth of all technology degree holders. As the only girl, junior Christina Meyer says, “although I am the only girl in the class, it doesn’t really change what class is about, but just how I’m treated as a minority. Since I’m the only girl, I’m treated differently, and Ms. Lyons accommodates more personally for me.” Computer science teacher Jennie Lyons comments, “I don’t want her to drop the course solely because she is the only girl. As a result of that, I have to make sure that she’s comfortable taking a class with all boys.”
Boys in Majority
Girls in Majority
Although a small discrepancy exists within major courses, the true imbalance lies within elective courses. In the Digital Age introductory computer course, the male to female ratio is 31 to 2. In AP Computer Science, the ratio is 12 to 1. A n d re Ne w l a n d c o m m e n t s , “ It h a s n’t re a l l y affected our class much – I expected it to be male
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance...” —United States Code Section 20
In c o n t r a s t t o t h e i m b a l a n c e w i t h i n t h e A P Computers class, girls have the majority in the Intermediate Art class and the History of Media and Culture class. Junior Melissa Chervin says, “It is hard sometimes to focus because there are 17 girls in the class and no boys. Each girl wants specific attention, and there is only one teacher to accommodate all of our needs. On the other hand, I am grateful because boys rarely seem to be that skillful at art.” Smaller shifts in the imbalance occur annually for no particular reason. For the past two years, Spanish teacher Emily DeMarchena’s Spanish V course has been all female. “It was only about six or seven girls both years, so it wasn’t a big deal,” she said. “But this year it’s closer to a normal balance of boys and girls, which is pretty cool.” Infographic by Daniel Hoffman and Rachel Chan