Speaking to a gathering of public high school students recently, Chicago's Mayor-Elect Rahm Emanuel said he wanted the city to "look at more gender-specific high schools, meaning all-male schools and all-female schools, to focus and make sure those kids are able to focus on their academic accomplishments so we can improve their graduation rate."
As principal of Chicago's only all-girls public high school, I couldn't agree more. We need more single-sex schools. And not just here, but in cities around the country.
I've worked in plenty of co-ed environments and seen plenty of young women and men blossom within them. But, before arriving at the Young Women's Leadership Charter School (YWLCS) in December, I'd never seen the incredible impact of an environment that affords young women the opportunity to become leaders without the pressures that are triggered by the opposite gender.
Simply put, our students are in a different world from the one inhabited by their peers in more traditional urban schools.
One of our alumnae has summed up how YWLCS changed her life trajectory. Jonnice Clanton, who graduated in 2007, said, "If I hadn't gone to school at YWLCS, I probably would have gotten pregnant and dropped out of high school. I would be struggling to make a life for me and my child. Instead, I graduated high school with honors and am in college studying to become a math teacher. My future is completely different and better because of YWLCS."
For Jonnice, and thousands of girls like her, the world of their childhoods is full of limits, low expectations and cautionary tales. They don't dare to dream big because they've seen too many dreams derailed. The only world they can imagine living is one where the odds are stacked against them.
The founding premise of our school is that we dare our girls to dream. Founded in 1999 by a committee of women business and civic leaders, the YWCLS vision came from their belief that, in a perfect world, all young women will have the skills, tools and opportunities to develop as ethical leaders shaping their lives and the world. For the young women who come to our school, this is that perfect world.
At YWLCS, students are encouraged by a single- sex learning environment and shaped by a problem-based curriculum and inquiry-based instructional methods. This offers ways of learning and thinking that engage then in a rigorous, dynamic, college preparatory education, focused on math, science and technology.
Moreover, we begin and end everything we do with Leadership. We expect our students to act as leaders in their own lives, in their communities and, eventually, in the city, around the country and across the world. Our expectations are high and our students rise to meet them.
The National Coalition of Girls' Schools has noted that YWLCS is one of the most dynamic and effective public schools in the most difficult urban environments in this country. They're right: our girls graduate, go to and through college in rates that far exceed other non-selective schools.
Our students are admitted by lottery. The applicant list far exceeds our capacity for enrollment, with 300 girls on the waiting list for 9th grade next year.
We know why they want to come here: they want to succeed. In a public school system where just 63% of eligible female students even graduated from high school last year, 100% of our seniors graduated and 82% of them went on to college, at places like Michigan State University, Tennessee State University, DePaul University, University of Illinois at Chicago and at Urbana-Champaign, Arizona State University, and Sweet Briar College in Virginia.
Until we're living in a perfect world where all public schools have results like these, today's young men and women need more chances to succeed in environments that nurture their talents, develop their potential and dare them to dream big.
We're eager to work with Mayor Elect Emanuel to make this happen in Chicago. And we look forward to seeing similar efforts around the country.
On April 4th YWLCS' Girl Power Luncheon will host as its keynote speaker, Dr. Johnnetta Cole, who is the former President of Spelman College and currently the Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. For more information, visit www.ywlcs.org or call 312-949-4979.