Single Sex Education?

Public schools across the country increasingly are segregating boys and girls into separate classrooms with the hopes that the experiment will rescue failing public schools. However, parents and schools should think twice before testing this method on our kids. While no evidence persuasively demonstrates that segregating students improves learning, experience has shown that it shortchanges both girls and boys.

Most new sex-segregated programs seem to be inspired by "brain science" theories that in fact have little scientific basis. South Carolina's "Director of Single-Gender Initiatives" David Chadwell has taken the dubious lead in putting these theories into practice. Chadwell is on the advisory board of the National Association for Single-Sex Public Education (NASSPE), and according to Chadwell and NASSPE, teachers must treat boys and girls very differently in the classroom because their BRAINS are so different. Parents should be wary of Chadwell's suggestions that it is a scientific fact that their daughters are better off working quietly without the stress of time limits than competing in the demanding and physically engaging boys' class across the hall. Girls and boys must learn to succeed in a coeducational world.

What sex segregation really does is create inequality and deprive all students of the benefits of a diverse classroom. The most reliable evidence available shows that proven approaches to educational reform — such as smaller classes, paying teachers decent salaries and parental involvement — make much more sense than separating boys and girls based on archaic stereotypes.