Class Divide: Single-Sex Schoolrooms Take Off

Some Wary Of Growing Trend, But Advocates' Fervour Is Catching The Bushnel, Hartford: By JIM FARRELL,

Jermaine Boykin's feelings were clear when asked why he likes being in a class of only boys.

"Because girls can be mad annoying," said the fifth-grader at Beecher School in New Haven.

Jermaine said it with a smile, but educators who are increasingly embracing single-sex classrooms can relate to his perspective, just as they can to that of girls frustrated by the sometimes bombastic behaviour of boys. "It creates an environment where learning is more focused," said Kathy Russell, the principal at Beecher, which is finishing its first year with separate boys and girls classes in fourth and fifth grade. Spurred in part by a recent clarification of federal discrimination regulations, the numbers of single-sex classes and schools are increasing rapidly.

Ten years ago, only four public schools in the country were offering single-sex programs, according to the National Association for Single-Sex Public Education, which is based in Maryland. This year, at least 262 schools are offering single-sex programs, and the number is expected to surpass 300 next fall. The state Department of Education does not keep track of schools that offer single-sex classes, spokesman Tom Murphy said, but he noted that such schools are rare.

However, New London is planning a pilot program of single-sex classes for sixth-graders next year. Hartford is considering creating all-boys or all-girls academies as part of a plan to shake up its schools. And Manchester officials recently discussed trying single-sex classes. Russell said she decided to split classes by gender this year largely because of the number of discipline problems the students, especially the boys, had last year. "It was just a stabilizing tactic, but it's really worked for us," Russell said.
She said classes are more orderly than a year ago and said the boys and girls "seem to appreciate each other more and have developed a healthy spirit of competition." Changes in achievement are hard to quantify, Russell said, but she added "my fourth-grade girls are soaring academically."

Pros And Cons Advocates for single-sex education cite a variety of advantages, including the notion that separating boys from girls actually breaks down gender stereotypes. Leonard Sax, the director of NASSPE, said educators in single-sex classes can teach in ways that respect fundamental differences between boys and girls. For example, Sax said research shows that the language areas of a girl's brain generally develop before the areas used for spatial relations. A curriculum that ignores that difference can lead girls to believe they are not good at math. Likewise, he said, the hard-wiring of boys' brains lead them to be less comfortable talking about their emotions. Since the 1970s, educators have been trained to ignore gender differences, Sax said, and in doing so they have unwittingly worsened stereotypes.

He said studies show that girls are less likely to study subjects such as physics and computer science, and boys have not done as well with foreign languages and subjects such as history and music. "Kids learn differently," he said, adding that giving parents the chance to put their children into single-sex environments is "really a matter of social justice."