POMPANO
BEACH, Fla. — In one third-grade classroom, the walls are bordered by
cheetah and zebra prints, bright pink caddies hold pencils and glue
sticks, and a poster at the front lists rules, including “Act pretty at
all times!”
Next
door, cutouts of racecars and pictures of football players line the
walls, and a banner behind the teacher’s desk reads “Coaches Corner.”
The students in the first class: girls. Next door: boys.
Single-sex
education, common in the United States until the 19th century, when it
fell into deep disfavor except in private or parochial schools, is on
the rise again in public schools as educators seek ways to improve
academic performance, especially among the poor. Here at Charles Drew Elementary School
outside Fort Lauderdale, about a quarter of the classes are segregated
by sex on the theory that differences between boys and girls can affect
how they learn and behave.
Teachers
“recognize the importance of understanding that Angeline learns
differently from Angelo,” said Angeline H. Flowers, principal of Charles
Drew, one of several public schools in Broward County that offer some
single-sex classes.
The
theory is generally held in low regard by social scientists. But Ms.
Flowers notes that after the school, where nearly all students are
eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, started offering the classes
two years ago, its state rating went from a D to a C. Similar
improvements have been repeated in a number of other places, causing
single-sex classes to spread to other public school districts, including
in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia.
The federal Education Department
says there are about 750 public schools around the country with at
least one single-sex class and 850 entirely single-sex public schools.
Although government figures are not available for earlier years, the
National Association for Single Sex Public Education estimated
that in the 2004-05 school year, 122 public schools offered at least
one single-sex class and 34 public schools served just one sex.
Critics
say that there is little evidence of substantial differences in brain
development between boys and girls and that dividing children by gender
can reinforce entrenched stereotypes.
Rebecca
Bigler, a psychologist at the University of Texas, said that
segregating by sex — or any social category — increases prejudice based
on stereotypes.
“You say there’s a problem with sexism,” Ms. Bigler said, “and instead of addressing the sexism, you just remove one sex.”
That worries the American Civil Liberties Union, which this year filed complaints with the Education Department
against four Florida school districts, accusing them of violations of
federal civil rights law and of using “overly broad stereotypes” to
justify separating girls and boys into different classrooms. The
A.C.L.U. also filed a complaint
in Austin, Tex., against two new single-sex middle schools, and has
pending complaints in Idaho and Wisconsin and a nearly two-decade-old
complaint in New York. Lawsuits in Louisiana and West Virginia have
resulted in single-sex classes there reverting to coeducation.
Advocates
of single-sex classes often cite the struggles of boys, who
persistently lag behind girls in national tests of reading comprehension
and are much more likely to face disciplinary problems and drop out of
school. Educators also argue that girls underperform in science when
compared with boys and benefit from being with other girls. And school
officials say that children can be easily distracted by the opposite sex
in the classroom.
This
week, in response to the A.C.L.U. complaints and the growth in
single-gender classrooms, the Obama administration is issuing guidance
for school districts.
Schools
may set up such classes if they can provide evidence that the structure
will improve academics or discipline in a way that coeducational
measures cannot. Students must have a coeducational alternative, and
families must volunteer to place their children in all-boys or all-girls
classes.
But
the guidance says that “evidence of general biological differences is
not sufficient to allow teachers to select different teaching methods or
strategies for boys and girls.”
“I
am very concerned that schools could base educational offerings on
stereotypes,” Catherine E. Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights,
said in an email. “No school should be teaching students to live down
to diminished expectations for who they can be.”
Asking schools to demonstrate academic improvement could prove difficult.
Over
all, research finds that single-sex education does not show significant
academic benefits — or drawbacks. Janet Hyde, a psychologist at the
University of Wisconsin in Madison who analyzed 184 studies covering 1.6
million children around the globe, said the studies showing increased
academic performance often involved other factors that could not be
disentangled from the effects of the single-gender component.
Supporters
say girls have more in common with other girls — and boys with other
boys — than with the opposite sex of the same age. “Yet we segregate on
the basis of age, not based on any evidence,” said Leonard Sax, a
pediatrician and author of several books on gender differences,
including “Why Gender Matters.”
According
to the A.C.L.U.’s complaint in Broward County, the district relied on
materials from Mr. Sax as well as from the Gurian Institute, a
Colorado-based business founded by Michael Gurian, the author of several
books, including “Boys and Girls Learn Differently.”
The
training materials, the complaint says, noted that “gently competitive
lessons may be more impactful for boys” and that “lessons that
incorporate emotions and emotional vocabulary” may have more impact for
girls. Teachers were also advised to be “more tolerant of boys’ need to
fidget or girls’ need to talk during class.”
Many
of the schools that offer single-sex classes have struggled with
student academic performance and are in high-poverty neighborhoods
dominated by racial minorities.
“Parents
really are starving for better options,” said Galen Sherwin, a senior
staff attorney with the A.C.L.U. Women’s Rights Project. “And oftentimes
school districts sell these options as the solution with inflated,
unsupported supposed evidence.”
On
a recent morning at Dillard Elementary in Fort Lauderdale, where 98
percent of the students are black and nearly all come from low-income
families, MeLisa Dingle-Mason, a third-grade math teacher, echoed some
of her training.
“I
am able to push them to their level and include sports and different
things,” she said of the boys she teaches for part of the day before
swapping with a reading and social studies teacher to work with girls.
She added that she liked to turn math sessions into games because boys
“like competition.”
The
boys in her class appeared busy and eager to work. Jaheim Jones, 8,
said he preferred a girl-free zone at school because girls are “bossy.”
Down
the hall in a third-grade reading and social studies class, Ruth
Louissaint, who was overseeing all girls at the time, showed a crate she
kept in a storage room of fuzzy pastel blue sweaters for girls, saying
they were more likely to feel cold than boys. For spelling and
vocabulary lessons incorporating physical activity,
Ms. Louissaint brought out hula hoops and small rubber balls for the
girls. The boys would get yo-yos, bats and badminton rackets.
She
said she taught the same curriculum to both but changed background
details. So when playing music in class, for example, she tends to put
on Michael Jackson for the boys, switching to more soothing music by
groups like Enigma for the girls.
Angela
Brown, the principal at Dillard, said boys in single-sex classes had
better attendance than those in coeducational classes as well as better
scores on state reading and math tests. But the biggest improvement was a
decline in disciplinary infractions and bullying.
“Boys
are trying to impress girls, and girls are trying to impress boys,” Ms.
Brown said. “And we have removed that variable out of the way.”
Throughout
Broward County, an external evaluation by Metis Associates, a research
firm, found that after two years of offering single-gender classes in
five schools, nearly half of the students experienced a decline in
disciplinary referrals, detentions and suspensions compared with a year
earlier.
A
preliminary analysis of state test scores showed that about
three-quarters of the students enrolled in single-sex classes improved
their percentile rankings on reading scores, while close to 70 percent
of elementary students in single-sex classes raised their scores in
math.
Broward
County officials said that although the district added two new
single-sex options at a middle school this year, administrators were not
planning to expand rapidly.
“We
are not just doing this randomly, " said Leona Miracola, director of
innovative programs for Broward County Public Schools, adding that the
district takes compliance with federal law “very seriously.”
Shenilla Johnson, 9, a third grader at Charles Drew, considers an all-girls class a boon. Boys, she said, “annoy you.”
Without them, she said, “we get to learn new things.”
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