Test Data & Statistics

Chattanooga Preparatory School in Chattanooga, TN

Chattanooga Preparatory School (“Chattanooga Prep”) is an all-boys public charter school that opened its doors to sixty 6th grade students in August 2018. Located in the Highland Park area close to downtown Chattanooga, Chattanooga Prep is positioned to provide a unique and impactful educational opportunity for the young men in our urban communities.

“I believe Chattanooga Preparatory School is one of America’s leading edge schools for boys. In its first year of existence, it has already shown both qualitative and quantitative success. With boys struggling so much in our American schools, Chattanooga Prep is serving not only the boys in its classrooms but the neighborhood and city. I believe this school will become a model for others across the country and thank the Gurian Institute and the National Center for the Development of Boys for their help in our school’s success.”

–Ted Alling, Founder, Chattanooga Preparatory

In March, 2019, I visited Chattanooga Preparatory, accompanied by Troy Kemp, Executive Director of the National Center for the Development of Boys. We observed classrooms, met administrators and teachers, and spent time with the students–the young men–themselves. My work as an educational consultant and thought leader has taken me to more than a thousand schools in thirty years. My visit to Chattanooga Prep was one of the most satisfying in my career.

Open just one year, the school has already reached high standards of quantitative and qualitative achievement. New assessments of student performance in math, for instance, compared to before-attendance, show a 600% increase in ‘mastery’ a year later, and doubled achievement in ‘on track.’ Similarly, literacy scores have shown a 300% improvement. These are significant quantitative gains by any standard.

At Chattanooga Prep, student and staff satisfaction is high, providing a powerful qualitative measurement of success. Teachers are moving around the classroom; staff make themselves available and hold students to high standards; and male learning styles are understood and accommodated.

The boys themselves are challenged, confident, clear in expectations of them, empathic of others, and inculcate lessons and behavior standards well suited to both individual needs and a collective culture. As one student put it during our visit, “I finally belong somewhere–here–and it is a really good feeling.”

The Gurian Institute designated Chattanooga Prep a Gurian Institute Model School in April, 2019. We are joined in that enthusiasm by the National Center for the Development of Boys, which is also designating the school its first National Center for the Development of Boys Model School. Both of our organizations are committed to supporting Chattanooga Prep in its continued journey of expansion into new grades and levels.

–Michael Gurian, Executive Director, The Gurian Institute

Hillsborough County Public Schools, Tampa, FL

An extraordinary amount of training was implemented by the Gurian Institute and the district  prior to the opening of the Boys and Girls Preparatory Academies and has been ongoing ever since. The original training focused on current brain research on the differences between the male and female brains, their developmental stages, and the implications on classroom instruction. The Gurian Institute has been instrumental in providing training to educators in Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) through workshops held locally, as well as teachers and administrators attending the Summer Institutes presented by the Gurian Institute in Colorado Springs.

Student achievement based on performance on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and High School Credit End of Course Exams (EOC) in 2013.

Franklin Boys Preparatory Academy
(66% Boys of Color)

18% gain among 6th grade students passing FCAT Reading
14% gain among 6th grade students passing FCAT Math
11% gain among 7th grade students passing FCAT Math
7% gain among 8th grade students passing FCAT Reading
3% gain among 8th grade students passing FCAT Math
31% gain among 8th grade students passing FCAT Writes
7% gain among students passing the Algebra 1 EOC
100% of students who took GEO passed the EOC (first time this course was offered at BPA)

Other Achievements in 2013 Franklin Boys Preparatory Academy (BPA)

BPA earned the 2013 Magnet School of Excellence Award from Magnet Schools of America
BPA was honored with the Apple Distinguished Program Award on March 5, 2013, for its outstanding integration of iPad technolgy into all aspects of curricula
Every student at BPA has a school issued iPad 2 that he checks out everyday for use during school
BPA hosted national and international educators demonstrating how our students use the iPad 2 in all subject areas
Enrichment Academies are offered Tuesday – Friday after school, free of charge. Saturday Academies are offered monthly for students and families, also free of charge
BPA was named a Confucius Classroom with support from the University of South Florida Confucius Institute and the Office of Chinese Language Council International.

Pine Tree Elementary School, Avon, Indiana

Kari Mize, the principal of Pine Tree Elementary School in Avon, Indiana shared this success data with us.  “There are many things that we have done at Pine Tree to improve our practice, our earliest change being our professional development on gender learning differences.  To give you an idea of how life has changed at Pine Tree, I share this information with you. It is important to know that we are a Title 1 school.”

—–Language Arts ISTEP* Scores – Third Grade

 Girls
passing:  2007 – 77%           2011 – 93%        up 16%
Boys
passing:  2007 – 80%          2011 – 90%        up 10%

—–Math ISTEP* Scores – Third Grade

Girls
passing:  2007 – 69%           2011 – 82%        up 13%
Boys
passing:  2007 – 81%           2011 – 90%        up 9%

*(Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress)

“We also measure academic progress using the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), which we give three times per year. We look at the percentage of students meeting their target RIT by spring for our second, third, and fourth grade students. What follows is the improvement we’ve seen on NWEA.”

Percentage of students meeting target RIT in Reading: 
2007 –  32.9% to  37.9%                    2011 –  63.8% to  91.5%

Percentage of students meeting target RIT in Math:
2007 – 52.9% to 59.2                          2011 – 75% to 91.5%

Roosevelt Middle School, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
​(73% Children of Color)

Submitted by Marilyn Vrooman, Principal. “In 2005, we had a gender gap in reading achievement of 17%. Our boys scored 55% satisfactory on the 8th grade CRT reading test and our girls scored 72%.   I began looking for strategies that would correct this problem and came up with gender separation in classrooms.  The teachers agreed, the parents agreed and we separated the boys and girls in language arts, math and technology education.”

“Immediately, we saw positive results with the girls.  They took to it like ducks to water.  We are 100% free lunch; 65% Hispanic, 25% white, 8% black, 2% other. We are an urban school district with 900 students grades 6, 7 & 8. The boys were not so quick to work.  They complained that they needed the girls, the classes were louder, and the maturity differences in the boys caused problems in class.”

“So, researching more, I came upon the Gurian Institute that had many books written about learning differences in males and females.  I contacted Kathy Stevens and had her come for two days.  The first day, she just observed classes, took notes and studied behavior.  The second day, she conducted an all day in-service for our faculty.  She helped us understand the differences in boys and girls regarding brain-based learning, behavior and strategies for success.  After she left, our teachers were charged up again.  The teachers realigned their classrooms to meet the needs of the genders and changed the materials used to teach.”

“We have found that our boys do not like touchy feely stuff.  They like non-fiction, cars, action, etc.  Keeping totally with our state standards for each class, the teachers used different materials to teach the standards, and the boys took off.  And in terms of discipline success, our total fights on campus went from 125 to 30.”

“On our CRT scores, at the end of last year, our boys scored 71% satisfactory on the reading CRT and the girls scored 80%; narrowing the achievement gap to 9% in one year.

This year is the first year we have been off the states “at risk” list in four years.  This year, we have students separated by gender in all core subjects and in computers.  In order to overcome the maturation problem with the boys, we have the students grouped by ability, using last year’s test scores.” “Honestly, we would not have had the success we had if the Gurian Institute had not come in and worked with us on teaching strategies by gender.”

Contact the Gurian Institute at info@gurianinstitute.com for information on how a professional development plan can be designed to meet the needs of your organization and the families you serve.