Posts Tagged ‘Single-Sex Classrooms’

South Carolina Survey Shenanigans

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

You may recall that in a previous blog post we discussed the benefits of single-gender classrooms. Well, an article over at slate.com tackles the subject as well. Only this one is focused on debunking the seemingly fantastic news coming from the South Carolina Department of Education.

The Department recently surveyed 7,000 students in its schools, asking them questions about single-gender classrooms. The responses were startling.  Seventy six percent of children K-9 say that being in a single-gender classroom has given them more confidence. Ninety three percent of girls in grades K-2 reported increased motivation.

Read more about the survey at the following sites:

The slate.com article goes on to point out some of the flaws in this survey, including what should be considered its biggest — who cares whether students say they are more motivated or confident? What’s important when studying the effectiveness of an education program is how well the students do academically. This survey had nothing to do with that.

The Slate article also listed other problems with the survey. For instance, the students couldn’t answer “no change.” Their only options were “decrease” or “increase” when answering questions about motivation and confidence. The article claims the lack of “no change” as an option makes it more likely that students would say something positive. It goes back to the youthful need to please one’s elders, the author says.

Also, the survey was only given to students in single-gender classrooms. However, in South Carolina, to be in a single-gender classroom one must opt-in. That basically means that the kids surveyed were more likely to give positive answers because they had chosen this form of education voluntarily.

The last problem cited by the Slate article was essentially the placebo effect. Apparently something similar to the placebo effect in drug trials turns up when measuring the effectiveness of education programs. Just saying that change is coming and will be studied is sometimes enough to increase people’s perception of how well a school is doing.

It seems this South Carolina survey essentially tells us nothing, except perhaps the state of mind of students. That is, no doubt, important, but when it comes to measuring how well a particular program is doing, something more than feelings are needed.

To read the Slate article, go here.

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Separating the Boys from the Girls

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

Some Prince William County schools are trying out something that may be the bane of hormonal boys everywhere — single-sex classrooms.

The most recent adopter is Fred Lynn Middle School, which will start the single-sex classes in the fall. It’s following the lead of Woodbridge Middle, which piloted a single-sex classroom program three years ago.

Fred Lynn Middle’s Principal J. Harrison-Coleman, who originally started a single-sex program at a Portsmouth area school, tried out the idea on a smaller scale at Fred Lynn earlier this year. She pulled aside 10 boys struggling in math for one period and gave them instruction as a group. The majority improved. Harrison-Coleman attributed the success to the focus possible in a single-sex classroom.

“Not having to impress girls, what a difference it has made in them,” she said.

To read more about the program at Fred Lynn, go to Inside Nova .

Single-sex classrooms are not particular to Prince William County. As educators across the country try to find ways to better teach students, single-sex education has been adopted in many jurisdictions.

The results can be good.

On its website, the National Association for Single-sex Public Education cites the example of a three year pilot project conducted by researchers at Stetson University in Florida. The study compared single-sex classrooms with coed classrooms at nearby public school Woodward Avenue Elementary. Look at what the comparison discovered in regard to scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test:

Boys in coed classes had a 37 percent proficiency rating and girls in coed classes had 59 percent. That’s shockingly low when compared with all-boy classrooms, 86 percent, and all-girl classrooms, 75 percent.

Go to the website for information about this and more.

The NASSPE is careful not to claim single-sex education as a panacea, however:

“First point to remember, when you consider evidence regarding the effectiveness of gender-separate classrooms: Simply putting girls in one room, and boys in another, is no guarantee of anything good happening. On the contrary: some public schools which have adopted single-sex classrooms, without appropriate preparation, have experienced bad outcomes,” the website states.

The website provides a link to a 2005 commentary written for Education Week by Dr.  Leonard Sax, executive director of NASSPE. In the article, Sax explores single-sex education in more detail, giving examples of successes and failures, and expanding on some of the less-known portions of the topic. He begins his article with a number of interesting questions:

“Why the surge of interest in single-sex education? And should we perhaps be more cautious, and more concerned about the possibility that single-sex education might reinforce harmful gender stereotypes? Also, most of the North American research on single-sex education has been conducted in private or parochial schools, which may evoke images from “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” and “Dead Poets Society.” Can single-sex education really work in the more diverse setting of American public schools, particularly in low-income, inner-city neighborhoods where academic excellence is least often found? What happens when Mr. Chips meets Snoop Dogg?” he asks.

Of course, those words were written in 2005 and, no doubt, much has changed since then. But nevertheless, the NASSPE still points to that article as one that contains wisdom on the topic of single-sex classrooms.

You can read Dr. Sax’s article here .

Done right or wrong, single-sex classes are becoming more prevalent, as evidenced by the recent decision to go forward with the classes at Fred Lynn Middle School. So, it’s important that parents, students and educators learn as much as possible.

Before you know it, single-sex education could be coming to a classroom near you.

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