The Wisconsin chapter of the ACLU has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, challenging single-sex classes at one middle school and two elementary schools. Riverview Middle School in Barron separated fifth-grade girls and boys in language arts and math classes in the past and plans to do so again next year. The two elementary schools, both in Beloit, have been offering single sex classes in multiple subjects. The ACLU alleges that all three single-sex programs violate Title IX because the schools lack the adequate justification required by law -- instead relying on discredited science and sex stereotypes.
Earlier this year, the ACLU convinced a high school in La Crosse, Wisconsin, to voluntarily suspend its girls' English and math classes, that were also justified solely by pseudoscientific generalizations about the ways girls learn.
The Wisconsin ACLU's efforts are consistent with the ACLU's nationwide campaign to "teach kids not stereotypes" -- an effort that has generated similar challenges to single sex programs around the country.
