Saturday, October 28, 2006

What People are Saying about Single-Sex Education

Here is a partial roundup of the range opinions the media are reporting in the wake of the the Department of Education's recent regulatory change allowing single-sex education in public schools.

NOW President Kim Gandy, quoted in Ms. Magazine: "[Single-sex education] doesn’t prepare boys and girls for the real world, where they will have to interact with and work alongside each other."

Washington Post Editorial: "Local school districts that want to experiment with single-sex instruction should be encouraged to adopt a meticulous research protocol to demonstrate what works or doesn't work. Then a serious discussion can begin."

Rosalind Barnett & Caryl Rivers, Op-Ed in the Boston Globe: "Though children can learn in different types of classrooms, data show that once allowances are made for the social class of parents and kids, pupil-teacher ratios, and the quality of teachers, there is little difference between the performance of boys or girls in single-sex or co-ed classrooms."

Gail Rothman: Op-Ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution "For girls, the effects of single-gender educational environments include multiple benefits not reflected in test scores. These include increased career aspirations, enhanced leadership opportunities and a higher percentage of girls pursuing math and science study."

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