Single-sex schools lower failure rate

CLARKSVILLE, Ind. -- Teachers at a southern Indiana middle school say separating boys and girls for some core classes has helped reduce the number of students who fail.\nClarksville Middle School began separating seventh-grade boys and girls last year during math, English, science and other core courses. Genders were mixed only in classes such as music and art.\nBy the end of the first semester, most teachers and staff were praising the decision because 78 percent of girls and 60 percent of boys passed all subjects for that semester, compared with 69 percent of girls and 46 percent of boys when they were sixth-graders.\n"I don't think you can argue with those kinds of numbers," said Tammy Haub, the English teacher who suggested the change.\nThis year, the program is being expanded throughout the school, except for honors classes.\nClarksville Middle School, located across the Ohio River from Louisville, Ky., is the only public school in Indiana that has implemented such a program. Officials with the state Department of Education said they knew of no others.\nPrincipal Pam Cooper said the system has been an effective way to get students to focus on academics instead of each other. Her teachers agree that it eliminates distractions caused by taking courses with members of the opposite sex.\nAyla Haq, an eighth-grader, said the system has worked for her.\n"We can talk without having to worry about guys making fun of us," she told The Courier-Journal for a story published Tuesday. "Some girls don't like it, but I do. And we all got better grades" last year, when the program started.\nCritics from organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Organization for Women contend single-sex classes may violate federal rules that prohibit gender-segregation in all but the most limited situations, such as physical education classes involving bodily contact.\nEmily Martin, a staff attorney for the ACLU, said parents of students in a single-sex class could sue the school, arguing that their children were denied a nondiscriminatory education.\nThe change at Clarksville started after Haub read research that indicated some students do better in single-gender classes. She joined colleagues and proposed the idea to Cooper, who decided to try it.\nSuperintendent Sam Gardner signed off on the project, and the program began quietly in the seventh grade last year on a trial basis.\n"Our main goal was academic," Haub said. "One of the things we wanted to do was improve the percentage of boys passing all their classes."\nIn the sixth grade, 54 percent of the boys failed at least one subject in the first semester. But a year later, after a semester of single-gender instruction, only 40 percent of the same group of boys was failing at least one class, according to information compiled by the school.\nHaub does not believe the gains could be explained simply by students growing a year older. "If anything, there tend to be even more distractions in the seventh grade," she said.\nIn single-gender classes, some girls no longer worry about "looking silly" in front of boys, and some boys are not as tempted to show off as they might with girls present, Haub said.\n"The social pressure is off," she said, allowing students to focus on academics.