With a board vote last
month, Austin school officials will designate three single sex schools for the
2014-15 academic year.
In a
5-3 vote, Austin Independent School District approved to turn Pearce
and
Garcia middle schools into single-sex schools. AISD officials said students who
do not wish to attend these schools may choose to enroll in Dobie, Martin,
Lamar or Webb middle schools. Approval was also implemented for an all-boys
school at the Alternative Learning Center, to serve as a partner school for the
Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders.
Implementing
single-sex schools has triggered a debate that raises political, civil rights
and socioeconomic concerns. According to a study by Columbia University, some schools, mostly in the south, are
“resegregating,” either by gender or by race. In Austin, the debate
over segregation stems from gender divided schools.
The issue makes Ja’Michael Darnell, a
student volunteer at AISD’s Houston Elementary, wonder why boys and girls
should be taught separately and what proves this helps them succeed in the
classroom.
“I don't think people should force kids to
go to coed or single sex school,“ Darnell said. “I think kids should just
choose on their own.”
The
National Association for Single-Sex Public Education lists single-sex education
long term in many private schools and estimates that approximately 400 public
schools now offer some form of single-sex education. NASSPE
research suggests driving forces in the single-sex education movement are the differences in how males and
females learn.
Acknowledging this fact, Martin Smith, UT
education curriculum and instruction graduate student has his own opinion on
the issue of single-sex education.
“What if an administration thoughtlessly
excluded a course because it is believed more popular with the other gender,”
Smith said. “You might unintentionally reinforce gender stereotypes by offering
only the expected preferences that comes with single-sex education.”
Kinnisha
Joseph, an AISD Hillcrest
Elementary teacher, favors the
idea of single-sex schools.
“Single-sex
public schools will improve the educational experiences of low-income and minority
students,” Joseph said, “especially girls from these areas who are likely to
miss out on programs that can help them develop.”
Since
their approval by the U.S. Department of Education in 2006, support for
single-gender schools has been
mixed.
According to a survey conducted by AISD
among households within the attendance zone of the approved single-sex schools,
less than half of the families of students favor establishing single-sex middle
schools. Families with students in upper elementary and middle school grades
were somewhat less likely than those with students at lower grades to support a
single‐gender middle school. When broken
down by ethnicity and socioeconomic status, less than half of Hispanic, white
and African-American families of students in AISD’s urban area support a
single-sex school in their neighborhood.
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