A Comparison of Student Performance in Single-sex Education and Coeducational Settings in Urban Middle Schools


Book Description

Author's abstract: Since amendments to NCLB in 2004, public schools have not only established single-sex schools, but have also established single-sex classrooms within coeducational schools. Most of these modifications were adopted as a means to provide support to lowachieving students, many of who reside in urban settings. Proponents of single-sex instruction state that mostly African Americans, Hispanics, and females benefit most from this type of instructional setting because single-sex environments help to reduce gender stereotypes students encounter in coeducational settings. Opponents of single-sex instruction believe that accomplishments achieved in single-sex environments can be achieved in coeducational environments if the proper teaching strategies were in place. Opponents also feel that not enough studies have been conducted to make a strong claim that single-sex environments are better than coeducational environments. This study compared GCRCT middle grades mathematics scores for three years at four middle schools within an urban school district in Georgia to determine if the instructional setting is a factor in student performance. Two single-sex schools were selected (one male and one female), and two coeducational schools (one traditional and one that incorporated homogeneous class groupings). In addition to the instructional setting, student gender and grade level were examined to identify possible relationships with students' GCRCT mathematics achievement. The results of this study indicated that sixth grade male coed single-sex students, and seventh grade female coed students in the sample group were more likely to pass the GCRCT in mathematics than their peers in the other instructional settings. A cohort group, which is a subset of the sample group, identified students who remained in one school for grades sixth through eight. The results indicated that sixth and eighth grade cohort female coed students were more likely to pass the GCRCT in mathematics than their peers in the other instructional settings. Results also indicated, over a three-year period female students of the sample group enrolled in coed classes, and female students of the cohort group enrolled in a single-sex school had the largest gains on the GCRCT in mathematics.




Single-sex Education


Book Description

The purpose of this study was to provide insight on whether providing a single sex educational environment to inner-city African-American students helped to improve students' achievement and school engagement. A purposive sample of all students in grades three through six enrolled in single sex classrooms in a public school in a large urban city was included in this research. Comparison groups were selected from a neighboring public schools, ensuring the most consistency across demographic variables. Students completed two surveys: the School Engagement Survey (Fitt & DuCette, 2001) and the Estes Attitude Scale - Revised (Estes, Estes, Richards & Roetiger, 1981). Also, achievement data for these students were collected via a state sponsored school district data warehousing system. Students were also asked to participate in same sex, same grade focus groups. Ten teachers of these students were asked to participate in individual interviews. Results indicated that students in single-sex classes had statistically higher means than students in coeducational settings on the School Engagement Survey sections of Positive Self Perception, Positive Teacher Belief, and Positive School Environment. Also, students in coeducational settings had statistically higher means on the Estes Attitudes Scales for the subject of mathematics. Students who were enrolled in single-sex classes for more than one year had higher scores on standardized mathematics tests. Although single-sex and coeducational students start at approximately the same level for both reading and math, the single-sex students consistently score higher than their coeducational counterparts. Additionally, the results showed no significant gender differences on any of the measures of attitudes or achievement. Teachers did not drastically change their instructional approach after being assigned to a single-sex classroom but they did change their approach to behavior management. Teachers do not participate in quality, ongoing professional development to support their practice as teachers of a single-sex class. Both boys and girls seem to enjoy the attention they receive in single-sex classes. Boys and girls also expressed a feeling of comfort in the single-sex setting. Boys and girls alike expressed enjoyment of all school subjects including mathematics and science. Girls and younger boys perceived themselves as being much more academically successful in the single-sex classroom. Boys in grades five and six perceived themselves as failing academically and they blame the bad behavior exhibited in their all boys' classes.




Single-sex Education


Book Description

The purpose of this study was to provide insight on whether providing a single sex educational environment to inner-city African-American students helped to improve students' achievement and school engagement. A purposive sample of all students in grades three through six enrolled in single sex classrooms in a public school in a large urban city was included in this research. Comparison groups were selected from a neighboring public schools, ensuring the most consistency across demographic variables. Students completed two surveys: the School Engagement Survey (Fitt & DuCette, 2001) and the Estes Attitude Scale - Revised (Estes, Estes, Richards & Roetiger, 1981). Also, achievement data for these students were collected via a state sponsored school district data warehousing system. Students were also asked to participate in same sex, same grade focus groups. Ten teachers of these students were asked to participate in individual interviews. Results indicated that students in single-sex classes had statistically higher means than students in coeducational settings on the School Engagement Survey sections of Positive Self Perception, Positive Teacher Belief, and Positive School Environment. Also, students in coeducational settings had statistically higher means on the Estes Attitudes Scales for the subject of mathematics. Students who were enrolled in single-sex classes for more than one year had higher scores on standardized mathematics tests. Although single-sex and coeducational students start at approximately the same level for both reading and math, the single-sex students consistently score higher than their coeducational counterparts. Additionally, the results showed no significant gender differences on any of the measures of attitudes or achievement. Teachers did not drastically change their instructional approach after being assigned to a single-sex classroom but they did change their approach to behavior management. Teachers do not participate in quality, ongoing professional development to support their practice as teachers of a single-sex class. Both boys and girls seem to enjoy the attention they receive in single-sex classes. Boys and girls also expressed a feeling of comfort in the single-sex setting. Boys and girls alike expressed enjoyment of all school subjects including mathematics and science. Girls and younger boys perceived themselves as being much more academically successful in the single-sex classroom. Boys in grades five and six perceived themselves as failing academically and they blame the bad behavior exhibited in their all boys' classes.




Debating Single-Sex Education


Book Description

Debating Single Sex Education: Separate and Equal, 2nd edition, provides a balanced summary of the context, concerns, and findings about single sex education in 21st Century United States. Few school reforms have engendered as much controversy as single sex public education. This book examines the history of single-sex classes and legislation that has over time evolved to render the reform legal, even though it continues to be subject to public scrutiny and litigation. The book also provides insights into the social, religious, and cultural contexts that set the stage for the growing popularity of single-sex education over the last decade. It explains controversial brain-based research and addresses the problem of bullying in single-sex classes. Finally, the book includes findings based on research in single-sex schools across the nation. Do single-sex classes work? This book provides information that will allow the reader to make an informed decision about that question. Debating Single Sex Education: Separate and Equal,2nd edition, strives to inform the debate and add to the discourse on this popular school reform.




Gender in Policy and Practice


Book Description

This book exposes the complexity of single-sex schooling, and sheds new light on how gender operates in policy and practice in education. The essays collected in this volume cover a wide range of institutions, including K-12 and higher education, public and private schools, and schools in the US and beyond. Detailing the educational experiences of both young men and women, this collection examines how schooling shapes-and is shaped by- the social construction of gender in history and in contemporary society.




Separated by Sex


Book Description

In this innovative study, Jean Lave moves the analysis of one particular form of cognitive activity--arithmetic problem-solving--out of the laboratory and into the domain of everyday life. In so doing, she shows how mathematics in the "real world", such as that entailed in grocery shopping or dieting, is, like all thinking, shaped by the dynamic encounter between the culturally-endowed mind and its total context, a subtle interaction that shapes both the human subject and the world within which it acts.




Same, Different, Equal


Book Description

Although coeducation has been the norm within private and public schools since the 1970s, single-sex education has staged a comeback in recent years as a means of addressing the academic and social problems faced by some students. Single-sex education raises controversy on ideological grounds, and in 1996 the Supreme Court struck down the all-male admissions policy at the Virginia Military Institute in a decision that has cast a legal cloud over public initiatives. In this timely book, Rosemary Salomone offers a reasoned educational and legal argument supporting single-sex education as an alternative to coeducation, particularly in the case of disadvantaged minority students. Salomone examines the history of women’s education and exclusion, philosophical and psychological theories of sameness and difference, findings on educational achievement and performance, the research evidence on single-sex schooling, and the legal questions that have arisen. Correcting many of the current misconceptions about single-sex education, she argues that it is a viable option and that the road to gender equality should be paved with diverse educational opportunities for all students—regardless of race, class, or gender.




EBOOK: Rethinking Single Sex Teaching


Book Description

The retreat to single-sex classes in co-educational comprehensive schools in the UK reflects a long history where educational policy and practice has made explicit the belief that boys and girls are different in how they learn and what they should learn. However, there is also a common assumption that there is equality in what is made available to learn and, if there is not, then single-sex organisation achieves this. The authors challenge this opinion and offer a fresh and theoretically informed look at the debate about single-sex teaching, presenting insights from research about the intended and unintended consequences of gender division in schools. Drawing on classroom observations and in-depth interviews with teachers and students, the book illustrates the effect of single-sex classrooms on learners and on the versions of subject knowledge made available to them. In exploring the differences in teaching practices between boys’ and girls’ classrooms, in relation to subjects such as Science, English, Drama, and Design and Technology, the authors highlight how single-sex teaching can, inadvertently, create circumstances which limit rather than open up students’ access to subject knowledge. The authors offer conceptual tools for investigating the knowledge-gender dynamic, advocating that learning will expand if teachers work with gender to help students to cross boundaries into non-traditional gender territories within subject lessons. Rethinking Single-Sex Teaching is thought-provoking reading for teachers, head teachers, academics and policy makers.




A Study of Motives, Challenges, Professional Development, and Beneficial Outcomes of Single-Gender Classrooms in Coeducational Public Middle Schools


Book Description

McGlown, Calvin. Ed. D. The University of Memphis. December 2015. A Study of Motives, Challenges, Professional Development, and Beneficial Outcomes of Single-Gender Classrooms in Coeducational Public Middle Schools. Major Professor: Larry McNeal, Ph. D The purpose of this study was to examine the leading motivations, primary challenges, types of professional development engaged in, and positive outcomes perceived by administrators who have either initiated or inherited the practice of single-gender classes within coeducational middle school settings. To address the four research questions presented within this study, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to conduct multiple analyses that addressed four groups of dependent variables (motives, challenges, professional development, and beneficial outcomes of single-gender education) on the independent variables initiators and inheritors of the single-gender education initiative. Although, no statistically significant differences were observed for the two subgroups of respondents (initiators and inheritors) with respect to answering any of the research questions, there were clearly differences in the perceptions of all respondents as to which reasons most motivated their adoption of single-gender education: which challenges they regarded as the most serious, which types of professional development they most frequently engaged in, and which outcomes they most agreed their programs had achieved. For respondents in the aggregate, addressing learning style, improving student achievement, and decreasing the problems of low achievers were the reasons they selected as most important for taking on single-gender education. The greatest challenges they indicated, were those connected to teacher professional development, with respect to single-gender education and teaching under achieving students. In terms of their own professional development, administrators most frequently read articles and made observational visits to classes in their own schools. Administrators rarely took university coursework related to instruction or made conference presentations. All respondents agreed that their implementation of single-gender education produced a range of positive outcomes, such as improvement in student achievement.




Single-Sex Education Versus Coeducation in North Georgia Public Middle Schools


Book Description

The U.S. Department of Education is giving more liberties to school districts to offer single-sex schools in order to adequately serve the needs of students. The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to test the theory of students' performances based on their educational environment by comparing students who received instruction in a single gender classroom in a public middle school compared to students who received instruction in a mixed gender classroom in a public middle school. The achievement test, Georgia Criterion Referenced Competency Test, was used with each site school. There were two years of data collected with the standardized test and was utilized as a pretest and posttest in all subtests areas. The data were compared as whole group, females to females, and males to males. The findings in the study showed that there were significant differences for the whole group in reading, science and social Studies. There were also significant differences in the males in science, and social studies; females showed significant differences in math, reading, science, and social studies.