Dear Dawg: What’s this I hear about a BOY screener?  Does this mean that our local school district is now doing some sort of screening on boys? Why would they need to do that? Is this some sort of transgendery thing?  Why can’t we just let the boys be the boys and the girls be the girls? Why do we have to “screen” them? And what happens with this “screening”? If a boy does not measure up does that mean he’s not a real boy? I would hate for that to happen. I think we should let the boys be boys with their frogs and snails and puppy dog tails while the girls remain sugar and spice and everything nice. Can’t we just go back to that?  YOUR FRIEND.  EMILY LITELLA.

DEAR MS. LITELLA: I think you misunderstand, Ms. Litella.  The term BOY refers to the Beginning of the Year assessment of a student. Sometimes schools like to give the students a test at the beginning of the year and then give the same test at the end. This is a simple and effective way to determine if the student is learning.  The school compares the BOY (Beginning of the Year) to the EOY (End of Year) test result. Sometimes there is also a Middle of the Year (MOY) assessment. 

It can be confusing. You know how these educators are—if they can replace words with acronyms they will do it.  But please stay in touch. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you.  DAWG.

DAWG BONE: A BOY SCREENER HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH TITLE IX.Got a question or comment for the Dawg?  Let me hear from you at jwalsh@wabsa.com.