| |
Single-Sex Schools / Schools with single-sex classrooms / what's the difference?
In March 2002, when NASSPE was founded, only about a dozen public schools offered single-gender classrooms. For the 2011-2012 school year, at least 506 public
schools in the United States are offering single-sex educational
opportunities.
About 390 of those schools are COED schools which offer single-sex CLASSROOMS,
but which retain at least some coed activities.
In some cases, the only coed activities are lunch and one or two electives,
so the distinction between a single-sex school,
and a coed school with single-sex classrooms, can become a matter for debate. From March 2002 through July 2007,
we listed
single-sex schools on one web page, while coed schools with single-sex classes were listed on a separate web page. As
it became increasingly obvious that the distinction was often arbitrary, we decided in August 2007 to begin
listing all public schools offering single-sex classrooms on the same web page, which is this page.
By our count, 116 of the 506 schools qualify as single-sex schools, meaning that students attending any of those schools have
most or all of their school activities in a setting
which is all-boys or all-girls. All but five of those 116 schools are single-sex campuses, such as the
the Pro-Vision School, an all-boys school in Houston, Texas, or the Charity Adams Earley Academy for Girls in Dayton, Ohio.
Throughout 2011 we learned that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been using our list of schools to send out harassing letters to public schools offering single-sex classrooms.
These letters demand the school to provide a justification for single-gender classrooms, demand to know how the program is assessed,
demand to see all program data, all information regarding professional development, etc. etc. etc.
The letters threaten legal action if the school doesn't promptly reply. The typical ACLU letter also claims, falsely, that the school will lose its eligibility for participation in the school lunch program
if the single-gender classrooms continue to be offered. It's harassment pure and simple. But many school administrators don't realize that the ACLU's claims regarding the school lunch program are false, and
most public schools
- and even most smaller school districts - do not employ their own legal counsel.
Instead they hire outside attorneys on an hourly rate, as needed.
Just hiring an attorney to read a letter from the ACLU, determine which claims are legally valid, and respond to the letter, can cost a school hundreds of dollars in legal fees - at a time when schools are having to
cut programs, and let good teachers go,
because of lack of funds.
For example, the Adrian school district - a small school district in rural Missouri - began offering girls' classrooms and boys' classrooms, as an option.
The district superintendent Kirk Eidson reported that "the single-gender classes have created fewer distractions and that students are doing better". Nevertheless, the ACLU sent a letter
threatening legal action if the district did not abandon the single-gender format.
Steven Book, an attorney working for the Adrian school district, said that while the district
"does not necessarily agree with ACLU's legal analysis or conclusions regarding research on this topic"
it will accede to the group's request. The ACLU never had to file a lawsuit or even a formal complaint. The single-gender classrooms were abolished merely as a result of a letter from an ACLU attorney.
Smaller school districts often simply do not have the time or the personnel to deal with the ACLU's harassment. It's easier to give in
than to fight.
We don't want to do anything to facilitate the ACLU's program of harassment. Single-gender programs in public schools are legal, as the Federal court
ruling in the Breckinridge case clearly demonstrated. If your district wants to offer an all-girls public school or an all-boys public school, the requirements are very simple. If your district
wants to offer a coed school with single-gender classrooms, then the requirements are somewhat more significant, but still not burdensome. You just have to do your homework and know what the requirements are.
You should began by contacting us and we will be glad to help. Unfortunately, there are still school administrators out there who think it's legal to ASSIGN girls and boys to single-gender classrooms, with no
coed option, and without complying with the simple requirements. Administrators who make the wrong decision on this point, and several other issues, may quickly find themselves under assault from the ACLU:
it doesn't matter whether you are urban or rural, Red state or Blue state. Do your homework before you launch single-gender classrooms, and please
check with us BEFORE you make the announcement regarding the launch of your single-gender program! There's never a charge for a consultation via phone or e-mail.
If you are a teacher or administrator at a public school in the United States seeking to launch or sustain a single-gender program, please
contact us and we can let you know what public schools in your state currently offer single-gender classrooms.
Be sure to provide the name of your school and a telephone number at the school.
If you are a parent looking for a public school in the United States which offers single-gender classrooms, please send us your Zip code
and we will let you know whether there are any public schools near you which offer single-gender classrooms.
If you are a parent looking for a PRIVATE girls' school in the United States or Canada, we recommend that you begin with the list of member schools
of the National Coalition of Girls' Schools. For a more comprehensive list of girls' private schools in the United States, go to the listing of private
schools maintained by the United States Department of Education, enter your state, and enter "Female" under "additional characteristics." This list is not comprehensive, but it's close.
(Isn't it strange that the United States Department of Education maintains a list of girls' PRIVATE schools but not a list of girls' PUBLIC schools?)
If you are a parent looking for a PRIVATE boys' school in the United States or Canada, we recommend that you begin with the list of member schools
of the International Boys' School Coalition. For a more comprehensive list of boys' private schools in the United States, go to the listing of private
schools maintained by the United States Department of Education, enter your state, and enter "Male" under "additional characteristics." This list is not comprehensive, but it's close.
NASSPE Home
Contact us
Top of this page
|
|
Search the NASSPE Web site
|
|
|
|
