Dive Brief:
- Girls go to college at higher rates than boys and they get more advanced degrees, and California organizations have noticed a clear gender imbalance in programs that help prepare low-income, first-generation, black and Latino students for college.
- EdSource reports girls are often at least 60% of the participants in school-based or community programs focused on test prep, financial aid and the college application process, which has led many organizations to step up recruitment for boys.
- Strategies for closing the gender gap in preparation and scholarship programs include creating all-male discussion groups, avoiding potential sports and work scheduling conflicts, hiring more young men to staff programs, and even lowering academic qualifications for scholarships.
Dive Insight:
White women have been the primary beneficiaries of affirmative action programs of all kinds. Even though women remain minorities in top leadership positions in the academic world, they have long outnumbered men at every achievement level starting with high school graduation rates. Black and Latino men, at this point, are doubly disadvantaged.
Some districts have opened all-male college prep schools, whether charter or traditional public, to better serve this population. Chicago’s Urban Prep Academy has been a shining example, with attention as high up as President Barack Obama on its 100% college placement rate and predominantly black student body. But single-sex schools still draw significant criticism for segregating students by gender, a concern that should be properly considered by administrators nationwide.