Gender Healthy Respectful Schools
School-Based Projects 2001-2002

Bridge to a Caring and Respectful Community
Harriet A. Baldwin School, Boston, MA
The Harriet A. Baldwin School, a Chinese bilingual elementary school, aims to create a nurturing environment in which students, parents, and teachers feel socially, emotionally, and physically safe. The project, using a national program called Cooperative Discipline, proposes to work on the following goals: establish a forum for parents and teachers to exchange information about gender expectations in their culture; create a community in which all members learn to accept and respect each other through their differences; and provide the adults in the school community with the skills to guide children towards cooperative and civil behavior.

Charlestown Girls Project
Charlestown High School, Boston, MA
While one-third of the population of Charlestown High School is bilingual, fewer bilingual girls than boys participate in the technology classes. Specifically, this project aims to breakdown cultural barriers that may inhibit Chinese and Latino girls (and to some extent, Latino boys) from pursuing careers in computer technology. Building on its achievements of the past three years, the project will provide support to students and teachers to significantly increase the numbers of Chinese girls and Latino girls and boys entering college to pursue careers in these growing fields.

Dismantling the Pipeline
Morse School, Middle School Cluster, Cambridge, MA
This project will address the racial/gender disparities in achievement for middle school (grades 6-8) girls in science and mathematics, and boys in language arts and social studies. Seeking to create a school environment with high expectations for all students, the students will participate in weekly hands-on, cooperative projects in each of these subjects. Teachers, parents and administrators will undergo training in strategies to support high achievement for all students.

Gender Equity Across Cultures
Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School, Cambridge, MA
In its third year, this successful program will continue to promote awareness of gender stereotypes with a multicultural group of adolescent students. Through class lectures, group work, discussions, journal writing, presentations, and forums, the project will address gender stereotypes across cultures, the gender roles males and females are expected to play in society and at work, and the expectations adolescent immigrants face within their families and in their school based on their gender. This year, the project will include a series of workshops for parents that will include a course on raising children in a foreign culture and the different gender role expectations in American culture.

I-CCAN (I Can Control Anger Now)
Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, Boston, MA
Female students exhibiting inappropriate verbal and physical anger against other students, faculty, and staff is a growing problem at Madison Park High School. This demonstration project will provide anger management, emotional support services, conflict resolution training and effective communication skills to 10 female students in the Health Academy at the school. The 17 vocational and academic teachers, the guidance counselor, and the two administrators in the Health Academy will receive training in classroom anger management skills as well.

Open Circle Project
Phineas Bates Elementary School, Boston, MA
In response to recent incidences of bullying, homophobia, teasing, and gender bias at all grade levels, this project seeks to promote a safer and more nurturing environment for all students at the school. During the year, teachers, parents, and students will be trained in the Open Circle Curriculum, focusing on three areas: communication, self-control, and interpersonal problem solving.

Open Hearts, Open Minds
Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, Boston, MA
Focusing on recent immigrant students, this project continues its work in promoting two goals: deepening teachers' understanding of how issues of equity affect student's learning and their ability to create a gender equitable environment that supports high expectations and success for all students; and creating opportunities for a new generation of students to engage in activities that help them explore issues of equity. The project incorporates Urban Improv, improvisational drama workshops that lead young people in explorations of issues they face on a daily basis, the Dream Writers Newsletter and Website that encourages ESL and bilingual students to find their voice by promoting writing across the curriculum, and the Classroom Libraries of Equity that provides resources focusing on issues of racism, sexual harassment, urban living, and immigration.

Promoting Just and Respectful Communities
Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School, Cambridge, MA
This project will continue the work of The STARS program (Students Teaching and Advocating Respect) through which all ninth graders participate in workshops on sexual harassment led by their peers and the Allies Program through which faculty members are identified as trusted adults to whom students can turn to with questions and concerns about sexual harassment. In addition, the project will be expanded to elementary schools in Cambridge through workshops on harassment and bullying that will be led by high school students.

Re-Writing the Rules: School-wide Strategies for Addressing Bullying
Rafael Hernandez Two-Way Bilingual School, Boston, MA
The goal of this project is to "re-write the rules"- that is, to create a common language and set of expectations about positive and appropriate behaviors at the school. The project is a response to a school-wide consensus on the need to develop school-wide strategies that address specific and disturbing behaviors of bullying and teasing. Viewed as the beginning of a multi-year process to build skills among teachers, parents, and students to address existing problems and foster a respectful and nurturing environment, this project will help to provide a learning environment where all students of every age, size, gender, race, language, and physical abilities feel safe and supported.

Rites of Passage
The Harbor School, Boston, MA
This project is a collaborative effort that draws on the resources and traditions of SEED and Outward Bound as well as the expertise of the Harbor School staff. A pilot school of the Boston public schools, the Harbor School began a SEED group in September 1999. From their experiences in this group, teachers saw the need to develop a program for students and their families to have similar discussions. The project included two single-sex groups of ten to fifteen students and adult sponsors who met after school throughout the year. The topics addressed in the program included boundaries in relationships, showing courage, responding to anger and loss, responsibilities to family and community, and cultural and self knowledge.

Science Club for Girls
King and King Open Schools, Cambridge, MA
This highly successful after school program, Science Club for Girls, will continue at both the King and King Open Schools. The program is designed to spark girls' interest in science starting in the early grades and then keeping them involved as they progress through school. The program helps girls develop and maintain confidence in themselves as scientists as they enter the upper grades and beyond. The program is especially concerned with the retention of girls-of-color and academically underachieving girls.

Science Clubs for Girls
Cambridgeport Public School, Cambridge, MA
Based on the successful program at the King and King Open Schools, the Science Clubs for Girls at Cambridgeport is an interactive after-school program designed to spark girls' interest in science in the earliest grades. Through hands-on experiments and college and adult mentors, the program aims to keep girls interested in science as they grow.

SEED Training for Cambridge Public School Parents
Cambridge Public Schools, Cambridge, MA
SEED groups for parents and guardians of Cambridge Public School students, one for elementary school families and the other for high school families, will be formed. The project will provide a safe and supportive opportunity for parents, guardians, and educators to engage in conversations about equity and diversity in education and in their family's lives. By sharing information about the learning and social experiences that their children are exposed to in school, parents and guardians will be better able to support their children and the work of teachers and administrators in bringing gender and racial equity into their classrooms.

Sit Down and Talk
Quincy E. Dickerman Elementary School, Boston, MA
Building on individual teacher efforts to address issues of gender equity and diversity in their classrooms, this project, at a school in the city's Dorchester neighbourhood, will now bring this work to the level of the whole school through an integrated curriculum approach. Starting with the Teasing and Bullying curriculum as the focus for professional development, this curriculum will eventually be integrated into teaching and learning units that deal with the study of other cultures and of history, particularly those periods of intolerance and oppression. The intent of the project is to help students break away from gender straitjackets and to assist them in becoming respectful of diversity.

Slur-Free Environment: Alternatives to Name-Calling and Bullying
Tobin School, Cambridge, MA
In its first year, this project created, implemented, and evaluated an anti-bullying, anti-name-calling curriculum in three sixth-grade classrooms. In its second year, it extended its work to include seventh and eighth graders as part of its Alternatives to Bullying Workshops at the Tobin School. Students discussed and learned more about the effects of name-calling and teasing. Teachers, administrators and students were able to explore the issues raised in the research literature. A curriculum was designed that addressed both the research results and the day-to-day occurrences within the school.

Wellness Program
Boston Arts Academy, Boston, MA
To help students address the social, emotional, and physical needs they have as they aspire to excel both as artists and scholars, the Boston Arts Academy will be instituting a number of wellness initiatives. These initiatives will include the addition of a social/emotional curriculum, single-sex identity groups that will allow the young artists to discuss gender issues, a Body Image emotional wellness group, and a Girl's Retreat that will provide girls a safe environment in which to discuss gender, race, and class issues.