2008 Woodie Awards
Piedmont College Blogs
Single-gender education pros and cons
by Lane Gresham
Issue date: 8/18/08 Section: Opinion
Having been on the front lines in the middle school environment, I saw how single-gender education would be a great idea.
You only have to watch the posturing of the middle school animal to see that males and females are wired very differently. The hormones rise and there is a direct correlation in the number of distractions.
I also have the privilege of parenting both genders so I'm somewhat of an unprofessional expert in the field of comparative gender observation.
In researching this topic, I was pleased to see the initial results are positive in terms of raising achievement.
A program that separated middle school students in California assessed single-gender education.
Student grade point averages for students who had previously attended Jefferson in either grades six or seven increased for all students, male and female, in both grades seven and eight.
The increase was statistically significant for both genders at grade seven and for males at grade eight.
The article on www.Education-World.com went on to state the girls started to feel more confident in the classroom and boys learned to be more collaborative.
Hello? I don't need expensive studies and surveys to tell me what I know already about the human condition.
Of course, educating students at this age is fraught with challenges. I've already mentioned raging hormones in the first paragraph.
Separating genders in the classroom is a good idea if a common sense approach is used. However, in many cases, common sense seems to have been removed from the public school equation.
I'm leery of embracing this concept given the track record in the public school arena.
Is this trend towards single-gender education just one more bandwagon educators jump on only to abandon too quickly when another money-driven study comes along to dispute the findings?
Administrators in the public arena are infamous for changing direction in mid-stream without regard for the effect the inconsistencies have on student performance and well being.
Several articles I read reference the need for additional research.
Anita P. Davis, Ed.D., is the director of teacher education at Converse College, a private liberal arts college for women.
She told Education World, "Educators must expand the research base using existing single-sex classes and schools. And create additional classes that improve the public school system.
Researchers must promptly share significant findings on single-gender education with the education profession and with the general public."
I'll bet if you follow the money trail on single-gender education, there's somebody at the end laughing all the way to the bank.
You only have to watch the posturing of the middle school animal to see that males and females are wired very differently. The hormones rise and there is a direct correlation in the number of distractions.
I also have the privilege of parenting both genders so I'm somewhat of an unprofessional expert in the field of comparative gender observation.
In researching this topic, I was pleased to see the initial results are positive in terms of raising achievement.
A program that separated middle school students in California assessed single-gender education.
Student grade point averages for students who had previously attended Jefferson in either grades six or seven increased for all students, male and female, in both grades seven and eight.
The increase was statistically significant for both genders at grade seven and for males at grade eight.
The article on www.Education-World.com went on to state the girls started to feel more confident in the classroom and boys learned to be more collaborative.
Hello? I don't need expensive studies and surveys to tell me what I know already about the human condition.
Of course, educating students at this age is fraught with challenges. I've already mentioned raging hormones in the first paragraph.
Separating genders in the classroom is a good idea if a common sense approach is used. However, in many cases, common sense seems to have been removed from the public school equation.
I'm leery of embracing this concept given the track record in the public school arena.
Is this trend towards single-gender education just one more bandwagon educators jump on only to abandon too quickly when another money-driven study comes along to dispute the findings?
Administrators in the public arena are infamous for changing direction in mid-stream without regard for the effect the inconsistencies have on student performance and well being.
Several articles I read reference the need for additional research.
Anita P. Davis, Ed.D., is the director of teacher education at Converse College, a private liberal arts college for women.
She told Education World, "Educators must expand the research base using existing single-sex classes and schools. And create additional classes that improve the public school system.
Researchers must promptly share significant findings on single-gender education with the education profession and with the general public."
I'll bet if you follow the money trail on single-gender education, there's somebody at the end laughing all the way to the bank.
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