Gender Equity in Elementary Schools

Gender bias is well established in children by age 6, so creating environments where all children can learn without bias requires an understanding of the components of gender bias and the related challenges. This book supports educators by giving them the language to talk about gender equity, the tools to assess issues of inequity in their schools, and methods to create healthier and better-balanced school culture and curriculum.This book will help educators develop ways to identify implicit bias, address imbalances, and direct more positive and balanced messages for all students. The book provides very useful information on reflective practice, action plan development, and changing the visual culture of schools. It also includes practical and engaging ways to integrate gender equity lessons within content area classes and creating a school-wide initiative.The book shares positive work in the field of gender equity and serves as a guide for educators and school districts in advancing their goals. It explores what gender equity looks and sounds like in a school setting. It also includes professional development ideas for teaching staff as well as activities and common core lesson integration plans across elementary grades and content areas.

I was drawn into this book and didn’t want to put it down. It focuses on the need for all educators—and really anybody—to reflect critically and deeply on the adverse impact of gender bias on children and its effect on their personal development and achievement in school. The author gives readers a practical road map to examine and understand gender-healthy practices in schools and communities that will be meaningful for generations to come. Gender Equity in Elementary Schools is an invaluable resource for teachers and school leaders; it can help educators drive positive, actionable change in schools., Think you don’t have gender bias? Believe that your own gender or teaching experience can overcome any perceived bias? Ready for a challenge, discovery, and growth - just like your students? Then this carefully crafted toolbox is for you! And it’s also for those who don’t think they need it. Dorothy Venditto’s laser-like focus on today, and tomorrow’s gender equity issue is a new seed of enlightenment for the educator in all of us. Her comprehensive, thought provoking tips and strategies are valuable teaching tools, created as living documents we all must continually nurture. The call to action for self-reflection that Venditto highlights will lead to impactful development and changes required for gender equity health in our schools., The classroom can still be an unequal space. This book is both an important call to action and a valuable road map for any educator who strives to make sure that his or her classroom is a setting where gender equity is assured and all children can flourish. When the classroom becomes a better and safer place, so too does our country and our world., Being the father of two girls, ages 11 and 15, and having the opportunity as an administrator to have seen Dorothy in action with our students, it is wonderful to see her work in a book. Gender Equity in Elementary Schools is a perfect blueprint for schools. It assists teachers with activities and resources to create responsive, proactive schools and become transformational in their approach to develop gender equitable schools. The wonderful thing about Dorothy’s approach is to focus in class, at school, and the larger community to make change.

Dorothy Chiffriller Venditto is the Director of Enlightened Schools. Ms. Venditto is a NBPTS recipient who spent many years teaching in the classroom and providing professional development for teachers.