About Public Schools

Educators and public school leaders are always experimenting with new ways to improve classroom instruction and student learning. One of the latest trends involves new plans to educate students in single-sex classrooms.

While combined gender education has been, and continues to be, the strongest and most popular trend in public school classrooms, some educational experts assert that single-sex classrooms can boost student learning, performance, and behavior. In fact, studies proving the benefits of single-sex classrooms have been so positive that the Department of Education overturned its ban on single-gender classrooms, creating new legislation allowing public schools to implement single gender instruction once again. This new legislation was groundbreaking, as single-sex instruction has been prohibited in public schools since 1975.

With the new education legislation, school leaders are experimenting with new classroom designs to find out if a single-sex instruction can help save failing and struggling public schools and students. Currently, about 500 public schools are trying out new single-sex instructional models with the hopes that students will be able to focus and engage more effectively when separated from their opposite gender.

The Benefits of Single-Sex Classrooms

Single-sex classrooms, historically more popular in private schools, are essentially classrooms designed to teach all boys and all girls in separate settings. According to research, the cognitive, behavioral, and social development of the two genders is so different and unique that separating the genders allows for more

While many parents may believe that Dyslexia relates to an individual’s struggle with reading, the issue of Dyslexia can impact a child’s full development. Dyslexia symptoms include confusion with letters, numbers, reading, math, writing, and other difficulties – all of which can hinder a child’s academic progress.

Children coping with Dyslexia can face an array of adversities if their struggles are ignored. As studies demonstrate, students with Dyslexia who do not receive proper support may experience a decrease in self-esteem and a decline in positive behavior.

Thankfully, educators are finding new and innovative ways to help Dyslexic students learn at an optimal pace and level, and a rising number of schools are implementing targeted programs for support.

Dyslexia: The Signs and Struggles

Children coping with Dyslexia may reveal a wide variety of symptoms. For example, as Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal explains, children who struggle with Dyslexia often fail to fully comprehend both written material and numbers – leading to difficulties with other assignments. When these children struggle with academic tasks, they may begin to demonstrate signs of frustration, anger, or even depression.

According to the Mayo Clinic, other symptoms of Dyslexia may include the following:

• Your child may start speaking later than other kids his age.
• Your child adds new words very slowly to her vocabulary.
• Rhyming may be difficult for your child.
• Your child may have an inability to identify and recognize printed letters and words.
• Your child’s reading ability is below the standard level expected for

Many parents of talented and gifted kids, also known as TAG students, struggle with giving their children the appropriate levels of academic challenge and support. While public schools are striving to create greater TAG programs and courses, many parents are seeking out enrichment opportunities to supplement their child’s public school experience.

Parents looking for additional educational opportunities for TAG kids in public schools can take advantage of an array of community organizations, private institutions, events, and programs.

How Parents Can Support their TAG Child

As many TAG children may exhibit a greater desire for academic challenges and new opportunities, experts assert that parents should strive to balance a child’s academic activities with social ones. The balance will ensure that each student develops not only mentally, but personally and socially as well.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, most gifted kids generally benefit from spending time in settings amidst peers of similar abilities. Subsequently, many TAG children can benefit from skipping grades or engaging in accelerated classes. If TAG children stay in regular classrooms, they may need alternative opportunities to enhance their overall development.

TAG children require both mental stimulation and access to cognitively equal peer experiences. Therefore, parents, in addition to taking action with a child’s school, can also expose their child to alternative support opportunities as well.

This video from Raising Children's Network offers suggestions for supporting your talented and gifted child.

While nearly all public schools are required to provide specific programs to help support the needs of struggling students, many public school leaders and parents assert that students with gifted abilities should be entitled to the same opportunities.

With the success of these special needs programs, which include one-on-one support, smaller class sizes, and modified curriculum options, many public schools are beginning to apply the same approach for gifted children, creating programs and classes that are targeted to their unique needs and abilities. “TAG” programs, which stand for “Talented and Gifted,” are growing in popularity in public schools. Proponents believe that TAG programs will help gifted students to enhance their own diverse learning abilities.

This video explains what gifted education entails.

Who are “Gifted” Students?

Each TAG student possesses unique and diverse abilities, and subsequently, many public schools and states have their own forms of “gifted” assessments. For example, the Des Moines Public Schools of Iowa adhere to a strict state-mandated law regarding the assessment and qualifications of TAG children. According to Des Moines Public Schools, TAG students are required to meet an array of criteria, including:

• Students who require classroom/curriculum modifications, including differentiation, advanced class placements, and/or accelerated pacing.
• Students who demonstrate a high potential for advanced learning.
• Student performance scores within the 95^th percentile on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, the Cognitive Abilities Test, and/or the

In recent decades, public schools find themselves facing the greater needs of diverse student populations, with varying cognitive abilities, maturity levels, and academic strengths and weaknesses. While most typical elementary, middle, and high school students find themselves immersed in a classroom of twenty to thirty peers with one lead teacher, most public schools also have “self-contained” classrooms to provide alternative settings for enhanced academic support for the children whose needs cannot be fully met in a general education classroom.

What are Self-Contained Classrooms?

Unlike standard classrooms with a large number of peers, self-contained classrooms are typically smaller settings with a fewer number of students. Created to help foster enhanced support for students with special needs or specific difficulties, self-contained rooms are generally comprised of about ten students with unique struggles who are most commonly instructed by a lead teacher with a certification in special education. Self-contained classrooms will also have at least one paraeducator who provides instructional support under the guidance of the classroom teacher.

Due to recent curriculum shifts, some self-contained rooms cater to the diverse needs of students, such as those coping with autism spectrum disorder. A lead teacher, who is highly trained to help support students with autism, is able to provide greater assistance than what these students would typically receive in a classroom with a larger student-to-teacher ratio. Other examples of students who may be enrolled in self-contained rooms include students with developmental issues, behavioral concerns, students with specific academic struggles (i.e. in math,