Comments on single sex schools and incentives

A friend with some interesting comments on my last email:

I hate to dispel the scientific justification of single sex schools but as a mother of a Collegiate School graduate I can assure you that the culture of “hooking up” is alive and thriving at Collegiate, Nightingale, and Spence as much as it was at Horace Mann (from which my daughter graduated) and Thurgood Marshall Academy in Harlem (where I currently work). I actually found the single sex environment to be wonderful for my son and a disaster for my daughter (she hated Spence). In short, there is no one optimal solution. Just the option of giving families choices.

On this issue of cell phones as incentives, I find it ironic that we have to spend our energies chasing kids around the building confiscating cell phones because they are illegal in the building pursuant to DOE regulations but DOE uses them as an incentive to encourage academic excellence!!! I am weary of “incentives” and find that they have created an environment where students feel we have to pay them to do everything and do not want to make a personal investment in their education. My seniors expect waivers for all of their college applications at the same time they and their families are planning on spending hundreds of dollars on limos for their prom. Frankly as a CUNY trustee I refuse to help them get waivers because they have come to feel a sense of entitlement rather than an appreciation of the “incentives” provided.

My thoughts on the first paragraph: I'm still going to remain in denial about Nightingale, however.  Don't confuse me with the facts -- my mind's made up! ;-)

 

Regarding incentives, I don't know what you mean by being weary of them.  Even looking nationwide, here have been very few experiments with incentive systems.  I share your concerns about them, but I think we have to be willing to experiment with just about anything given the dismal track record of everything that's been tried to date to raise achievement, esp. among low-income students, and close the achievement gap.