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How to address the so-called “achievement gap” between boys and girls in subjects such as math and science has swirled among researchers, educators, and policymakers for decades. And then there are the numerous after-school programs and initiatives geared toward getting girls interested in math, science, and engineering even the Girl Scouts have jumped on the STEM bandwagon. Other co-ed schools-including ones in Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest school district-have allowed single-sex classrooms for math and science subjects in middle and high schools in an attempt to raise academic achievement in both subject areas among students. “We don’t need single-sex schools to do this.” Louis, Solar Preparatory in Dallas, and Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy in Chattanooga, Tennessee. These include a STEM-focused curriculum, like Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls in St. GALA and GALS are just two examples of not only a renewed interest in single-sex education, but also a trend among all-girls institutions seeking to empower young women in the classroom through tailored learning programs. Wagner estimates that up to 75 percent of GALS students are socioeconomically disadvantaged. In 2015, 11 percent of Vista’s students demonstrated proficiency or better in English language arts and 7 percent in math according to California standardized testing results. It’s the only all-girls middle school in the area, which is considered high-need.

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The students are working through a series titled “Like a Girl,” learning about influential young women like Mo’ne Davis, the 15-year-old Little League pitching phenomenon. She has no formal teaching experience but leads GALS 101, a daily health and wellness class. Wagner, a former COO of a charter-school nonprofit, credits attending an all-girls high school for giving her confidence throughout her career. “We believe that everyone’s an athlete,” said Carrie Wagner, the executive director of GALS. It has a similar mission: empowering female students in fields where males have traditionally dominated-in their case, athletics. Like GALA, GALS-a charter school that opened its first campus in Denver-is similarly housed on the campus of a co-ed public school, Vista Middle School. Sixteen miles away, in the San Fernando Valley, 100 or so sixth-graders of the Girls Athletic Leadership School (GALS) gather in an auditorium for a twice weekly yoga session, downward-dogging in unison atop neon-colored mats. She hopes to have female pilots talk to GALA students on-campus one day. They’re doing science and math while they’re doing this flight pattern, but maybe not really realizing all the different pieces they have to put together, whether it’s topography or angles or basic math to calculate fuel,” said Elizabeth Hicks, the school’s principal.

“It’s to spark the interest but also about making science and math fun. The sixth-graders will use them this year for a family genealogy project that involves researching the home cities of their ancestors and mapping flight patterns to them from Los Angeles International Airport.

The school’s STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) emphasis is further evidenced in an adjacent room containing two flight simulators.

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It is expected to be at full capacity with 700 middle- and high-school students by 2020.

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Thirty percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunch Hispanic and African-American students make up 61 percent of the school. With 160 students in grades six and nine, GALA is housed on Los Angeles High School’s co-ed campus.

Stem girl middle school