The New Segregation Battle: Boys Vs. Girls
An increase in girls- and boys-only classrooms in public schools has stirred debate on whether they enforce gender stereotypes or erase them.
By Jenna Goudreau
In Foley, Ala., some educators are treating their students a little bit differently.
Foley Intermediate School, a public school that teaches fifth and sixth graders, is in the midst of an ongoing experiment to separate classes by gender. First initiated in 2004, the school now offers two all-girls classes, two all-boys classes and one mixed-gender class per grade level. The program has been so successful that there is a lengthy waiting list of students hoping to get into a single-sex classroom.
Headed by Principal Lee Mansell, the teachers use gender-based strategies to appeal to the apparent biological and developmental differences between boys and girls. In the boys' classrooms, against a backdrop of blue-painted walls and cold blue lighting, teachers (both male and female) speak loudly and authoritatively to hold the attention of their students. Meanwhile, the boys are allowed to move around during a lesson, so they scatter and roam. Some sit at their desks, some hang out on the floor.
It's quite a different scene in the girls' classrooms, which Mansell says are usually calmer and quieter than the boisterous boys'. Here the girls sit attentively at their desks; the rooms are painted yellow and they're warmly lit. The students work in cooperative groups, are given literature like The Island of The Blue Dolphins, and have a weekly class meeting to talk through their interpersonal issues. (This, due to problems with the girls being catty and not getting along.)
It's still unusual, but this type of sex-segregation in public schools is steadily growing.
According to the National Association for Single Sex Public Education (NASSPE), only about a dozen public schools offered single-gender classrooms in 2002. By 2010 that number rose to 540 in the U.S., 91 of which are all-girls or all-boys schools and the remaining 449 are mixed-gender schools offering single-sex classes, like Foley Intermediate. (These numbers exclude schools that offer health, sex or physical education by gender, as well as correctional schools.) It represents an increase of 4,400% in the last decade.
The U.S. Department of Education prompted the surge in 2006 with a change to Title IX, a 1972 education amendment stating that no person should be discriminated against on the basis of sex. It now says that public schools may segregate the sexes if they provide a good reason (like suffering academic achievement), offer a mixed-gender course equivalent and conduct a biannual review. (The idea was originally raised in the 1990s, but shot down by many Democratic senators who thought single-sex classes would institute gender bias. In 2001 Hillary Clinton defended single-sex education as a valuable choice to parents and educators and was able to persuade many Democrats. Once approved, it was written into the No Child Left Behind Act, leading to the Department of Education's change to Title IX four years later.)
Proponents argue that taking the sex out of classrooms helps students focus on academics and reduces gender stereotyping. Critics say that the policy is unconstitutional and reinforces antiquated gender stereotypes.
However, in the largest study of the outcomes of sex-segregation in public schools, the Department of Education reported that it's neither beneficial nor detrimental, causing some to wonder what the point is.
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Readers: Is sex-segregation in public schools an innovative approach to education, or a potentially harmful incubator of gender stereotyping?
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