History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
Single-sex middle school aims to divide and conquer
- 11-30-2009
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By Amina Khan/Los Angeles Times
Eleven weeks after opening, Los Angeles Unified's newest middle school still gleams. Science classrooms sport chemical eyewashes and emergency showers. Teachers deliver lessons in surround-sound with hands-free microphones. Kids play basketball on rooftop courts. Yet what stands out most about Young Oak Kim Academy is that it is the district's only single-sex middle school. Classes are either all male or all female. During "biology Jeopardy," the girls stood on tiptoe, quivering hands stretched to the ceiling, as science teacher Amber Green called out categories -- organelles for 200, types of cells for 500. For their four-person "edible cell" group projects, students pulled out their building materials -- licorice, jelly beans and other candies -- and after a brief buzz of consultation, each member heads to a computer or the supply closet to complete her assigned task. (more...)
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