Where the boys are: The intersection of gender and early childhood progress.

Presenters: Dr. Donna Elam, CEO/Elam Leadership Institute and Dr. Al Bennett, Roosevelt University
This session will be interactive for administrators to discuss the part that gender plays in early childhood school experiences. Here we look at gender as a cautionary variable and how it intersects with student progress in the early school years. We look at white, brown and black boys, which inevitably will lead us to focus on the particular issues that they face. Finally, we examine the social ecology of boys as gendered beings, acknowledging that the social ecology of all boys in schools is not the same.
• What does research say about the relationship between student progress and gender?
• What should early childhood educators understand about the interplay of gender and school progress?