A high school near Downtown Memphis has decided the best way to make sure its students learn without distractions is to separate classrooms by biological sex.
Booker T. Washington High School principal Alisha Kiner found same-sex classrooms lead to a better education after much research, according to WMC-TV Action News 5. Though The Daily Helmsman could not reach Kiner for comment, several studies back up her reasoning and show girls are often cheated in integrated classrooms.
American University professors Myra and David Sadker published “Failing in Fairness: How America’s Schools Cheat Girls,” in 1993 that took over three years and observed over 100 classrooms to come to the conclusion boys and girls are treated differently in an educational setting.
Teachers call on boys in class eight times more often than girls do, according to the study. Boys are also more encouraged to work through problems on their own, while teachers will help girls who are stuck on a problem.
Another study done by Janet Hyde, a University of Wisconsin-Madison psychology professor, suggests same-sex classes do have benefits. Hyde said in 12 years of research, she has never seen a coeducational class statistically outperform a same-sex class.
Advocates say boys are more likely to participate in foreign language and the arts programs in same-sex classes, while girls are more likely to participate in science lessons.
“There is evidence that suggests that single-sex classrooms do have academic advantages, particularly for girls,” Daniel Kiel, law professor at the University of Memphis who studies education law and reform, said. “That research is not absolutely definitive, and it is certainly not the case for all students, but it is robust enough to suggest that single-sex classrooms are at least worth trying.”
An AASA (the School Superintendents Association) study by Jim Rex, state superintendent of education in South Carolina, and David Chadwell, same-sex program coordinator in South Carolina, shows new data continuing to emerge and information teachers can use to differentiate their classroom.
Rather than limiting students to their biological sex, according to this study, teachers in all classrooms can implement lessons that better meet the needs of their students.
“School officials always need to be careful when they adopt a policy of separation of students based on any characteristics, whether that be sex or anything else,” Kiel said. “But if school officials are smart about design and implementation and are attentive to the research about how classroom environments can affect learning, then I think there is potential for practices like this to work.”
However, there are some people who disagree with these studies, like Benjamin Duffey, an English teacher at South Gibson County High School in Medina, Tennessee. He says diversity is a strength in the classroom.
“I think this further removes the classroom from the real world – one of the cool things about teaching high school is getting students to discuss, argue and work together,” Duffey said. “Same-gender classrooms make replicating real-world discussions very difficult – the workforce is not same-sex.”
