• HOME
  • PROGRAMS
    • EARLY CHILDHOOD
    • ​ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
    • SECONDARY EDUCATION
    • STRATEGIES FOR ONLINE SCHOOLING
    • SINGLE GENDER
    • PACKAGES AND PRICING
    • MENTAL HEALTH
    • BECOMING A GURIAN MODEL SCHOOL
    • LEARNING & BEHAVIORAL DISABILITIES
    • SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONSIBILITY
    • BOYS & LITERACY
  • SUCCESS
    • GURIAN INSTITUTE SUCCESS DATA POWER POINT
    • TEST DATA & STATISTICS
    • GI MODEL SCHOOLS
    • ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
    • SECONDARY SCHOOLS
    • SINGLE GENDER EDUCATION PROGRAMS
    • THE GURIAN CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE AT CRESPI CARMELITE
    • SCHOOL SUCCESS
    • TRAINING TESTIMONIALS
    • INSTITUTE TESTIMONIALS
    • FAITH-BASED PROGRAMS
  • NEWS
  • EVENTS
    • GURIAN SUMMER TRAINING INSTITUTE 2025
    • TRAINING SCHEDULE
  • TRAINERS
    • RESOURCES
    • TRAINER CERTIFICATION
  • PRODUCTS
    • STORE
    • EDUCATOR ONLINE COURSE
    • PARENT ONLINE COURSE
    • GURIAN EARLY CHILDHOOD COURSE
    • ONLINE COURSE FOR HOW DO I HELP HIM?
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
Type and hit ENTER
  • HOME
  • PROGRAMS
    • EARLY CHILDHOOD
    • ​ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
    • SECONDARY EDUCATION
    • STRATEGIES FOR ONLINE SCHOOLING
    • SINGLE GENDER
    • PACKAGES AND PRICING
    • MENTAL HEALTH
    • BECOMING A GURIAN MODEL SCHOOL
    • LEARNING & BEHAVIORAL DISABILITIES
    • SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONSIBILITY
    • BOYS & LITERACY
  • SUCCESS
    • GURIAN INSTITUTE SUCCESS DATA POWER POINT
    • TEST DATA & STATISTICS
    • GI MODEL SCHOOLS
    • ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
    • SECONDARY SCHOOLS
    • SINGLE GENDER EDUCATION PROGRAMS
    • THE GURIAN CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE AT CRESPI CARMELITE
    • SCHOOL SUCCESS
    • TRAINING TESTIMONIALS
    • INSTITUTE TESTIMONIALS
    • FAITH-BASED PROGRAMS
  • NEWS
  • EVENTS
    • GURIAN SUMMER TRAINING INSTITUTE 2025
    • TRAINING SCHEDULE
  • TRAINERS
    • RESOURCES
    • TRAINER CERTIFICATION
  • PRODUCTS
    • STORE
    • EDUCATOR ONLINE COURSE
    • PARENT ONLINE COURSE
    • GURIAN EARLY CHILDHOOD COURSE
    • ONLINE COURSE FOR HOW DO I HELP HIM?
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
GET CONNECTED

The Gurian Summer Training Institute 2025 Conference - Sign Up Now!

  • HOME
  • PROGRAMS
    • EARLY CHILDHOOD
    • ​ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
    • SECONDARY EDUCATION
    • STRATEGIES FOR ONLINE SCHOOLING
    • SINGLE GENDER
    • PACKAGES AND PRICING
    • MENTAL HEALTH
    • BECOMING A GURIAN MODEL SCHOOL
    • LEARNING & BEHAVIORAL DISABILITIES
    • SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONSIBILITY
    • BOYS & LITERACY
  • SUCCESS
    • GURIAN INSTITUTE SUCCESS DATA POWER POINT
    • TEST DATA & STATISTICS
    • GI MODEL SCHOOLS
    • ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
    • SECONDARY SCHOOLS
    • SINGLE GENDER EDUCATION PROGRAMS
    • THE GURIAN CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE AT CRESPI CARMELITE
    • SCHOOL SUCCESS
    • TRAINING TESTIMONIALS
    • INSTITUTE TESTIMONIALS
    • FAITH-BASED PROGRAMS
  • NEWS
  • EVENTS
    • GURIAN SUMMER TRAINING INSTITUTE 2025
    • TRAINING SCHEDULE
  • TRAINERS
    • RESOURCES
    • TRAINER CERTIFICATION
  • PRODUCTS
    • STORE
    • EDUCATOR ONLINE COURSE
    • PARENT ONLINE COURSE
    • GURIAN EARLY CHILDHOOD COURSE
    • ONLINE COURSE FOR HOW DO I HELP HIM?
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
GURIAN INSTITUTE > Articles> Children> Gender> Model Schools> Resources> Training> Videos > Single Gender Education: See How It Works in San Antonio
Single Gender Education: See How It Works in San Antonio
Share
Articles, Children, Gender, Model Schools, Resources, Training, Videos

Single Gender Education: See How It Works in San Antonio

February 2, 2018
-
Posted by Webmaster

January 2018 marks the beginning of our third year working with Central Catholic High School in San Antonio, Texas as a Center for Excellence in Educating Boys.  Central Catholic, a school for boys in the Marianist tradition, located in San Antonio, Texas, is more than 150 years old.  It is institutionally committed to raising boys into empathic and successful men of service.  In the last decade, GI has been honored to partner with the school as Central Catholic became a Gurian Institute Model School six years ago and Center for Excellence in Educating Boys just over two years ago.

The Center for Excellence at the school is a hub for best practices in teaching, as well as a way for the school to outreach into the local and national community.  As a Center for Excellence, Center Catholic practices innovations in these key areas of focus:  building leadership among students; physical movement during learning; increased use of visual-spatial learning techniques; relationship building in all quadrants; environmental changes that include classroom changes for lighting and highly relevant learning; project-driven learning, especially in math/science, choice in literacy projects; and significant alteration in how discipline procedures advance among students and administrators.

Also at Central Catholic, the Center of Excellence designation has provided a way for professionals and parents throughout San Antonio and from elsewhere in the world to look at single-gender education that really works   In the public debate about the single gender option, some people argue the pros, others the cons.  Without proof, the latter constituency argues that single gender education doesn’t work.

From a raw data standpoint, it is hard to make this latter argument with fidelity to fact any more.  If you glance at the Gurian Institute’s Success pages, you’ll see both coed and single gender schools and programs in the United States and Canada that show positive gains in test scores, grades, student behavior, and other markers.  There are also numerous studies you can access online that echo our North American research. For instance, check out “Causal Effects of Single-Sex Schools on College Entrance Exams and College Attendance: Random Assignment in Seoul High Schools,” by Hyunjoon Park, Jere R. Behrman, and Jaesung Choi, Demography, April 2013, Vol. 50: 447-469.

The single gender schools and classrooms show positive gains in part because the teachers, staff, and parents are well trained in how to use the option most effectively.  Girls’ self-esteem and leadership quality rises; STEM performance rises; relational aggression decreases.  For boys, numerical gains in test scores, grades, and discipline referrals are often even more stark, as research has shown that boys are predominantly the students in difficulty in traditional classrooms throughout the world  

Central Catholic’s enrollment has been rising for more than six years.  It is a place the boys want to go and a place their parents want them to go.  When I visited the school and the Center this last fall, President of Marianist University, Paul Garro, told me, “Our identity as a school is linked to our Marianist roots, single gender education, and best practices for boys and their families.  We are devoted to this cause.”  This devotion is displayed in classrooms, offices, hallways, the gym and grounds, data and test scores, and very importantly, buy-in among parents and kids.

Principal of the school, Eddie Ybarra, who initially contacted GI seven years ago, told me, “I believe we have the ‘secret sauce’–a single gender education.  For this kind of education to work, as you know, we did a deep dive into brain-friendly teacher development, which has led to our teachers—who were already very instinctive in understanding boys–taking that understanding to the next level.”

GI Master Trainer and Indiana educator, Dr. Jim Weber, who provided classroom observations with me, agreed.  “The most impressive thing here is the combination of the commitment to educating boys as boys and the buy-in to theory and practical strategies that really work.”

Jim and I met with five seniors to interview them on their experiences at Central Catholic over the last four years, including the last two years as a Center for Excellence.  All of them agreed that “something really good has been happening here since we were freshmen.”  One of them said, “The teachers and staff let us move around more, learn in our own ways, and don’t stress as much now about how we learn.  We’re definitely learning better.”

We saw these innovations throughout the classrooms.   In Velma Uriegas’ English class, for instance, the boys debated different parts of The Scarlet Letter in a motivating competition format that inculcated the book’s subtle ideas into their minds.

In Mr. Nelson’s World Government class, the boys led one another in brain breaks that gently and powerfully compelled each boy, even the shy ones, to move from follower to leader and back again.

In Mrs. Winston’s Geometry class, the boys created visual objects and spatial systems on the walls and ceiling that impressed geometric principles into the brain kinesthetically:  moving book learning to deeper learning.

In Mr. Cassler’s English class, the boys augmented “book reports” with visual art and symbolic graphic essays about The Lord of the Flies.

In a national landscape in which there seems to be a battle between coeducation and single gender education, Central Catholic has stood fast and gone beyond to become a Center for Excellence in Teaching that others can observe and model from.  The Center has reached out and in partnership with GI helped to train the Young Men’s Leadership Academy in San Antonio, as well as Providence Girls School.  

I hope you will visit Central Catholic one day.  See what they are doing there.  Share their positive story with others.  Enjoy the high level of student and teacher engagement the school has nurtured.  Please reach out to us at the Gurian Institute, as well, if you think your school would benefit from our Model School and Center for Excellence partnerships.  When students want to come to school, want to learn, want to put their cell phones down and pay attention, we have done something truly great not just for them but for everyone they will later touch as they become adults of service.

By Michael Gurian

February 2, 2018

Related News

Other posts that you should not miss.
Articles, Events

Kimberly Dunn at our SI on Learning Challenged Students

May 26, 2025
-
Posted by Michael Gurian

Our Virtual Summer Training Institute is just around the corner!   We are thrilled that long-time educator Kimberly Dunn …

Read More
May 26, 2025
Posted by Michael Gurian
Articles

Guest Blog post by Tim Wright: The Men We Want Our Boys to Become

May 16, 2025
-
Posted by Webmaster

That boys are now more likely to own a smartphone than to live with their dad is striking. …

Read More
May 16, 2025
Posted by Webmaster
Articles

Guest Blog Post, Sean Kullman on ADD/ADHD and Boys

May 12, 2025
-
Posted by Webmaster

Sean Kullman, co-author with Michael Gurian of Boys, A Rescue Plan (2025) will be one of our keynoters …

Read More
May 12, 2025
Posted by Webmaster
← PREVIOUS POST
Our New Online Course Can Change Your Classroom!
NEXT POST →
Tai Chi, Kung Fu, and Switzerland: The Art of Getting Results in the Classroom and Beyond

2 Comments

on Single Gender Education: See How It Works in San Antonio.
  1. Allan Kirk
    February 8, 2018 @ 4:36 am
    -

    Greetings. There are many things that could be said but let me make just one observation.
    The changes that have swept Western society in the last 50-100 yrs have been touted as wonderful progress.This has been taken for granted since, afterall, has not our mastery of the physical world
    gained over this period been undeniable? Surely, this has been a progressive era in every other arena, why not in human affairs like education, labour and gender relations? Sadly, these 2 realms are worlds apart. Human systems were ripped apart from 1850-1950; systems that had evolved into a functional gestalt over thousands of years. Boys and girls/men and women NEVER occupied the same universe in all that time until now. There is NO reason to suppose this new approach to life will work. There is every sign that it will not. Are the brakes being applied? Any sign of sober second thought? Mostly the response has been to double-down. What was born out of hatred and tears and 50+ million dead is not progress but a monstrosity.

  2. David
    February 8, 2018 @ 5:05 am
    -

    Nice source of information about Single-Gender Education. Our all https://qanda.typicalstudent.org/ team members are always following your blogs. keep writing.

The Gurian Institute is featured in National and Regional Media – Read more

RECENT VIDEOS
  • An Impressive Adventure Program to Engage Young Men – Video by Paul Cumbo
    January 3, 2025

    Paul Cumbo and Michael Gurian have worked together on various projects for the …

  • California Event Tackles the Status of Boys and Men
    November 7, 2024

    Sean Kullman, co-author with Michael Gurian of the upcoming book, Boys, A Rescue …

  • Can Male/Female and Transgender Co-Exist?
    December 1, 2023

       Michael Gurian has often been asked whether the new cultural interest in …

  • Our New Online Course: For Early Childhood Educators!
    October 20, 2022

    We are proud to announce our newest Online Course:  The Minds of Our Youngest …

  • GI Collaborates with Maryland’s Achieving Excellence for Black Boys Initiative
    December 3, 2021

    The Maryland State Board of Education has looked at the data–and the hearts and …

RECENT POSTS
  • May 26, 2025
    Kimberly Dunn at our SI on Learning Challenged Students
  • May 16, 2025
    Guest Blog post by Tim Wright: The Men We Want Our Boys to Become
  • May 12, 2025
    Guest Blog Post, Sean Kullman on ADD/ADHD and Boys
CATEGORIES
Articles
Events
Boys
Children
Girls
books
Training
Gender
Videos
Offers
Ask Dr. Gurian
Model Schools
Teens
Resources
Podcasts
Archives
Recent Comments
  • kidscastle on Guest Blog Post: Is My Child Learning to Read? by Sean Kullman
  • Dana Weary on Gail’s Final Words: A Tribute by Michael Gurian
  • Vermelle D Greene on Gail’s Final Words: A Tribute by Michael Gurian
  • Tom Mortenson on Gail’s Final Words: A Tribute by Michael Gurian
  • Bonnie Kowaliuk on The Passing of Gail Reid-Gurian, Managing Director
GET CONNECTED
  • GURIAN SUMMER INSTITUTE 2024
  • GURIAN SUMMER INSTITUTE 2023
  • GURIAN SUMMER INSTITUTE 2022
  • GURIAN WINTER INSTITUTE 2021
  • GURIAN SUMMER INSTITUTE 2020
  • GURIAN WINTER INSTITUTE 2020
  • SUMMER INSTITUTE 2019
  • SUMMER INSTITUTE 2018
  • WINTER INSTITUTE 2017
  • FALL INSTITUTE 2017
  • SUMMER INSTITUTE 2017
  • SUMMER INSTITUTE 2016

 

 

 

Gurian Institute

417 W. 32nd,
Spokane WA, 99203
info@gurianinstitute.com

Phone: 509 624 0623
Fax: 509 624 4647

 

other Gurian sites:

Michael Gurian

Gurian Foundation
Helping Boys Thrive
Gender Leadership
Faith Communities

 

 

  • HOME
  • PROGRAMS
  • SUCCESS
  • NEWS
  • EVENTS
  • TRAINERS
  • PRODUCTS
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
© 2015-2022 Michael Gurian. All rights reserved
Single Gender Education: See How It Works in San Antonio - GURIAN INSTITUTE