• Athletics
  • Big Ed
  • Ed Tech
  • Educators
  • Elections
  • Federal Policy
  • Parents
  • Students
  • The Testing Industry

K-12 News Network's The Wire

K-12 News Network: People-Powered Public Education News

  • Budgets
  • Charter Schools
  • Federal Policy
  • School Districts
  • State Education Law
  • School Boards
You are here: Home / Educators / Flawed Study: Unclear Results on Single-Sex Schooling

Flawed Study: Unclear Results on Single-Sex Schooling

December 24, 2010 by K12NN Site Admin

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

In recent decades, the fiercest advocates for single-sex schooling were women and girls seeking room to thrive away from the dominating presence of males. In the most recent fifteen years, some of the most energetic advocates of single-sex classes (or even public schools devoted to teaching one gender or the other) are people concerned about lagging male scholastic achievement. (Eleven public schools were single sex in 2001, now thanks to legislative changes, there are 540 all across the U.S.).

With fewer boys excelling at school, more of them diagnosed with learning disabilities or behavioral disorders, and an achievement gap that widens even further among non-white boys, educators urgently hope that teaching boys separately from girls will stop the downward trend.

When the South Carolina State Board of Education released a study surveying 7,000 children on their self-reported satisfaction with single-sex classes, most students and their parents reported approval. Single-gender education is a main feature of South Carolina’s public school system by design; State Superintendent of Schools Jim Rex has made it a centerpiece of his administration.

Parents like their children to focus on books, not romantic interests, and some parents feel their daughters grow up more self-confident and outspoken when surrounded by other girls.

But two critics of the study say its methodology raises questions about the results.

…let’s not mistake students’ opinions for evidence that separating boys and girls can close gender gaps in achievement—or even that it is in their best interest. These aren’t questions children can answer themselves.

Professors Lise Eliot and Diane Halpern point out three main flaws that the designers of the study didn’t account for:

Facebooktwitterlinkedinrssyoutube

Filed Under: Educators, Research Tagged With: South Carolina

About K12NN Site Admin

I'm Cynthia Liu, Owner/Founder of K12 News Network. I'm the proud product of public schools through post-grad, the mom of a child in public schools, and the daughter of two teachers. Connect with me professionally on LinkedIn.

Sign up for our newsletter

* indicates required
Email Format

Buy a hybrid Facebook+ website today!

Federal Policy

Quick Education Voter’s Guide to the California CD34 Race, April 4, 2017

There are twenty-three candidates running to fill former Congressman Xavier Bacerra’s seat in Congressional District 34 in Southern California. (Bacerra is currently the state’s Attorney General, replacing Kamala Harris, who, after November 8, 2016, became our US Senator.) Election Day is Tuesday, April 4, 2017, 7:00 am to 8:00 pm. You can find your polling […]

Betsy DeVos, #NOTMYSDOE

Take the pledge to #resist and fight for public schools as a public good TODAY. DeVos had to have the assistance of Vice President Mike Pence’s unprecedented tie-breaking vote in order to win her confirmation. Two GOP Senators voted against, all Democratic Senators voted against. Yet all the other GOP Senators who received campaign donations […]

Next #DemDebate MUST Include K-12 Education Policy

The next #DemDebate is scheduled for the important primary state of Iowa on November 14, 2015. It’ll be broadcast by CBS in partnership with the Des Moines Register. Professor Julian Vasquez Heilig is leading the call for the families of 50 million students K-12 across the nation and the communities they live in to have […]

More Posts from this Category

K12NN on Blog Talk Radio

Online Politics Progressive Radio at Blog Talk Radio with MOMocrats on BlogTalkRadio

Categories

December 2010
S M T W T F S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  
« Sep   Jan »

Copyright © 2022 · The Wire Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in