Education Station NewsOK.com Blogging Community

There are more than 350 public schools in the nation with at least some single-sex classes, including schools in Oklahoma. Now, a county in Georgia could become the first place where an entire school district separates boys and girls into different classrooms.

Shawn McCollough, superintendent of the struggling Greene County Schools about an hour east of Atlanta, told parents, “If we’re going to take some steps, let’s take some big steps,” according to news reports.

McCollough said benefits of the plan include curtailing behavior issues borne of the need for students to impress the other sex; breaking down barriers of intimidation that may keep students from speaking up in front of the other sex; and allowing teachers to tailor their lessons to the ways boys and girls best learn, which research shows is not always the same.

Opponents, including some parents and teachers, have said the move violates federal law because it removes the option of a public coeducational environment. (Under the plan, the preschool, the charter school and likely some electives would remain coed.)

Spokeswoman Shelly Hickman said the State Department of Education does not track exactly how many schools here have single-sex classes.

Do you think separating boys and girls into different classes is a good idea or not? Share your thoughts on the Education Station blog at NewsOK.com (http://blog.newsok.com/educationstation).

Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter

Each year hundreds of qualified students who want to become nurses are turned away from nursing schools in Oklahoma.

Why? Because there aren’t enough nursing faculty to teach all the would-be nurses, who are of critical need in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and schools.

Why aren’t there enough faculty? Because faculty pay is generally less than that in clinical settings, there’s little incentive for working nurses to gain additional degrees in order to teach.

Have you applied to nursing school and been turned away? How has that changed your career goals? Did you re-apply and get in another year or program?

I want to know how the faculty shortage has impacted you. E-mail me at ssimpson@oklahoman.com

Susan Simpson, Education Writer

Should college students be allowed to carry guns on campus? And would that make them any safer?

It’s a debate that renews after each senseless shooting on a college campus, the most recent being the tragedy at Northern Illinois University in which five students and the gunman died.

Utah is the only state that allows persons with concealed gun permits to pack heat on campus. But several other states have passed or are considering legislation to allow it.

Oklahoma bans weapons on public campuses, and I haven’t heard any talk from administrators about changing that. But what do students, faculty and campus police think about changing the law? It will be hot topic if shootings ever occur on a campus here.

Let’s hope that day never comes.

E-mail me your comments at ssimpson@oklahoman.com

Susan Simpson, Education Writer

I never lived in on-campus housing. My community college didn’t have dorms at the time, and after I transferred I lived in rental houses off campus.

I think I missed out on an important college experience. Living with other students surely adds camaraderie to college life, and studies show it can also help keep students on track academically.

OU students have lots of options, both on and off campus, and at all price ranges. OU is hoping to lure more upper division students back to campus housing with a rebate program that gives back $100 to $400 a semester if the student maintains a high GPA.

Here’s the breakdown: GPAs of 3.25 to 3.49 would get $100 back; GPAs of 3.5 to 3.74 would get $200 rebated; GPAs of 3.75 to 3.99 would get $300, and 4.0 GPAs would get $400 back. 

OU’s Traditions Square apartments rent for $480 a month and include all bills paid. So students earning a perfect GPA would get most of one month’s rent back in reward for their academic success.

What do you think about the plan? Would it entice you to live on campus and make better grades?

E-mail me at ssimpson@oklahoman.com

Susan Simpson, Education Writer

One week. It’s how long Oklahoma spends observing Arbor Day, and it’s how long people have left to get a free tree for fourth-graders to plant for the occasion.

I’ve never been very good at keeping indoor greenery alive. It seems I don’t put them in a place to get enough sunlight or I forget to water them one day. But outdoor trees get all the light there is from sunup to sundown and get water from either the rain or, in a dry spell, the sprinkler put out for the lawn.

Now, for the cost of shipping alone — $1.59 — Fourth Grade Foresters USA will send schools an individually packaged evergreen tree seedling to give a student to take home and plant.

Any person, organization or company can sponsor a tree, which will be sent with the sponsor’s name to a nearby school.

The trees are unsold seedlings that would otherwise be destroyed, and they are packaged by adults with disabilities through the Free Trees and Plants project (www.freetreesandplants.com).

Oklahoma Arbor Week is the last full week in March, and the deadline to sponsor a tree for a youngster is Feb. 23. To do so, contact Sarah Henne at 866-390-1428 or sehenne@neb.rr.com.

And if you have any tips on how I can improve my own green thumb, send them to me at wkleinman@oklahoman.com.

Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter

Sometimes when my 4-year-old just won’t be quiet (like in the middle of a movie or at bedtime) I look longingly to her teen years when she’s apt to answer my questions with grunts and eye-rolls.

Maybe I should just enjoy these chatty times, because apparently it can be very difficult to communicate with adolescents.

Some Oklahoma State University researchers are studying communication styles between parents and teens ages 14-18. They are looking for families to talk about adolescent Internet and cell phone use, parental monitoring and discipline. And they are paying $120 to participating families.

You could use that money to pay off the cell phone bill or maybe bribe your teen into a 5-minute person-to-person conversation. Or, if you also have a talky 4-year-old, buy lots of earplugs.

If you’re interested, contact the Child and Adolescent Relationship Lab at 405-334-3904.

And if you have tips for me, e-mail ssimpson@oklahoman.com.

Susan Simpson, Education Writer

You gotta hand it to some of those first nursing school graduates at OSU-OKC. They didn’t let their starched white nursing caps get in the way of a good bee-hive.

Portraits of graduating students from the past decades hang proudly on the walls of a hallway in the nursing building. They show a chronology of the school’s growth, and hair style fads through the ages.

But more has changed in the nursing profession than follicle fashion. Training has changed as dramatically as technology, and advanced education is more important than ever.

A few things have remained constant. It’s still mostly women — white women — seeking nursing credentials, although more minorities and men are entering the profession.

What’s your story? When did you become a nurse and why? I want to know more about the many pathways to education, jobs and maybe now, even retirement.

And maybe you can also explain the engineering of the bee-hive. It’s making a comeback, ala Amy Winehouse. But that’s another story altogether.

E-mail me at ssimpson@oklahoman.com

Susan Simpson, Education Writer