Ep. 37: Liz Wolfson of Girls Athletic Leadership School (GALS)
Did you know that one in every four girls fails to earn her high school diploma in four years, and that those numbers are even worse for girls of color? When girls do not complete high school, they experience higher rates of unemployment, earn significantly lower wages, and are more likely to need to rely on public support programs to provide for their families. Research has confirmed that single-sex schools benefit students that are the most educationally at-risk, including girls and minority students. After learning about this, Liz Wolfson had a vision for an all-girls school that would foster academic excellence and personal development for young women. Fast forward many years, and she is now the co-founder of GALS and BOYS, which are tuition-free charter schools and are the only public, single-gender, college-preparatory schools in Colorado, which are now expanding into other states. We sat down with Wolfson to talk education, how she built a school with no history of doing so, and how she has overcome the challenges along the way.