LAGUNA BEACH : Schools Tackle Sex Inequities

About 45 Laguna Beach parents, teachers and school officials turned out Thursday night to hear how boys and girls are treated differently in schools and to consider ways to tackle the inequity.

The Laguna Beach Unified School District, which co-sponsored the event with the local branch of the American Assn. of University Women, is committed to examining its educational practices and “creating gender equity in our schools,” said Robert Klempen, director of instructional services for the district.

The presentation included the AAUW-produced video, “Shortchanging Girls, Shortchanging America.” Its message was that girls suffer “serious losses in self-esteem” between the ages of 9 and 15 and often bail out of math and sciences that could lead to higher-salaried jobs.

Teachers, who tend to have higher expectations for boys in those areas, must learn to treat boys and girls equally so that females can expand their options, according to the video. Otherwise, the United States will be unable to “compete with the full team on the field,” the video said.

The AAUW presentation was based upon a 1990 poll commissioned by the organization and upon the results of a groundbreaking AAUW study released earlier this month.

The latest study, conducted by the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, found that teachers pay considerably more attention to boys, that most standardized tests are biased against females and that school courses often reinforce stereotypes or ignore girls altogether.

Also addressing the mostly female group gathered in the Laguna Beach High School library was Elsa Brizzi, a project director for the Los Angeles County Office of Education’s Teacher Expectations and Student Achievement program. TESA’s goal is to identify ways that girls are discouraged in the classrooms and to train teachers to respond evenhandedly to all students.

“It’s more or less a self-fulfilling prophesy,” said Brizzi, a Laguna Beach resident. With the average parents spending about 35 minutes a week of “quality time” with their children, Brizzi said, youngsters are heavily influenced by how their teachers respond to them. “Those behaviors affect self-esteem.”

While only about five of the district’s 100 teachers attended the meeting, the presentation was videotaped so it could be circulated later, Klempen said. No school board members attended the meeting.

Marge Hobbs, principal of Top of the World Elementary School and the only district principal who attended, has applied for a grant which would allow teachers from her school to take part in the TESA program. All four Laguna Beach schools have female principals.

Klempen said Friday that he is interested in seeking funds from the state or federal government that would allow other teachers in the district to undergo TESA training.

AAUW also has grants available through it’s Eleanor Roosevelt Fund, which mostly go to teachers who would like to take a sabbatical to conduct research or do postgraduate studies to learn more about educating girls, said Janette Mestre, president of AAUW’s Laguna Beach branch.