Families today have a host of outstanding educational options from which to choose. Families can choose the school that best meets their children’s academic needs and interests, dispositions and post-secondary goals.

Much research has been conducted on the benefits of a single-sex educational setting, like that of Saint Thomas Academy, where the single-sex environment allows the faculty and staff to focus their courses, policies, school days and activities to the unique ways in which boys learn and develop. As boys’ academic performance in coed environments has declined, Saint Thomas Academy has maintained high academic outcomes, demonstrating its expertise in educating boys and affirming the research in favor of single-sex education.

“The evidence is overwhelming that boys of all ages are having trouble in schools. They are underachieving academically, acting out behaviorally, and disengaging psychologically,” according to researchers Michael Reichert and Richard Hawley.[1]

It’s not boys’ faults. The traditional educational system requires teachers to accommodate both boys’ and girls’ developmental stages and their unique learning styles.

According to Michael Gurian, researcher and author of Boys and Girls Learn Differently!: a Guide for Teachers and Parents, boys are more reserved during learning, even in male-only, group-learning exercises. They prefer nonverbal communication, frequently relying on symbolic texts, diagrams and graphs, as these engage the right hemisphere of the brain, which is more developed in boys than girls. Brain development also gives boys better spatial abilities, such as measuring, mechanical design, and geography and map reading.[2]

Gurian also found boys need more and varying stimulants, particularly movement, to hold their attention, stimulate their brains and relieve impulsive behavior. Lose their attention and boys’ academic performance may slip and they may act out and disrupt others’ learning.[3]

Observing a class at Saint Thomas Academy, one can see how faculty adapt their courses, content and activities to engage boys. Video, visual art, drawing exercises, competitions, movement and varied activities throughout a single class period are tools teachers use to hold boys’ attention.

“We are steadfast in our mission to provide the best education to boys,” said Michelle Mechtel, Director of Academic Life at Saint Thomas Academy. “We design learning experiences that consider boys’ active natures and shorter attention spans. We consider engaging materials, labs, kinesthetic elements, public speaking opportunities and experiential learning to complement classroom activities. Because of our narrow focus, we’re able to do so much more for boys specifically.”

Space to be themselves

At Saint Thomas Academy, students push each other academically, through friendly competition or both formal and spontaneous peer mentoring and group study, which takes place every day in the cafeteria before school. Students help one another improve, be accepted and find their unique place within the student body.

“This is a school where it’s cool and good to be the smartest guy in class,” one faculty member said. “That’s not many places. I think the all-boys environment makes it even more so, because there’s that safety, that brotherhood.”

Students’ desire to do well academically leads to demonstrable results: 100 percent of the Academy’s students take the ACT and/or the SAT college entrance exams. Consistently, they score better than both the Minnesota and national averages.

This supportive environment may reveal why a U.S. Department of Education research review stated, “(Study) results suggest the potential that (single-sex) schooling could be associated with a number of post-high school, long-term positive outcomes. These include postsecondary success or participation in collegiate activities while maintaining full-time enrollment for a four-year period, reduced unemployment, reduced propensity to drop out of high school, etc.”[4]

Faculty are guided by the research on single-sex education and yet teachers also understand each student is unique in his development, maturity, intellect and interests. Saint Thomas Academy’s small class sizes allow faculty to develop relationships with students to understand what motivates each one individually.

By continuously learning and applying research findings and advice from educational thought leaders and each other, the school’s faculty and staff have become experts in educating boys. In turn, Saint Thomas Academy provides the educational setting in which boys can thrive.  

 

---

[1] Relationships play primary role in boys’ learning; Reichert, Michael and Hawley, Richard. Kappan Magazine V94 N8, pg. 49

[2] Gurian, Michael. Boys and Girls Learn Differently!: a Guide for Teachers and Parents. Jossey-Bass, 2011

[3] ibid

[4] U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development. “Single-Sex Versus Coeducation Schooling: A Systematic Review.” DOC # 2005-01. 2005