New federal rules make it easier to create single-sex schools

The new rules, which take effect Nov. 24, amend existing rules implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in education programs and activities that receive federal funds. The rules are designed to align Title IX with a section of the No Child Left Behind Act that called for the Education Department to promote single-sex schools.

Advocates of single-sex education hailed the new rules but civil rights and women’s rights groups charged they will promote discrimination.

In writing the final rules, the department reviewed more than 5,800 comments from the public on proposed rules published in 2004, said Stephanie Morton, the department’s assistant secretary for civil rights.

Most of those who submitted comments didn’t say “single-sex education was wrong,” Morton said. “A large percentage of individuals expressed concerns on how it would be implemented. We believe we have adequately addressed those concerns.”

Previous rules permitted school districts to establish an all-boys or all-girls school only if they provided a comparable single-sex public school to students of the other sex.

The new rules allow districts to establish a single-sex school if they also offer “a substantially equal single-sex or coeducational school to students of the other sex.”

The previous rules banned single-sex vocational schools and classes, and that has not changed.

Before, single-sex classes and extracurricular activities were also prohibited except for physical education classes involving contact sports and sex education classes.

The new rules allow such classes and activities as long as they are “substantially related to the achievement of an important objective, such as improving the educational achievement of students, providing diverse educational opportunities, or meeting the particular, identified needs of students.”

“If a single-sex class is provided, the improvement objective must be implemented in a manner that treats male and female students even-handedly,” the department states. “In some cases, a substantially equal single-sex class in the same subject may be required in addition to the required coeducational class.”

“We’re not proposing this as a one-size-fits-all solution,” Morton said. “This is an option that can be helpful for some students.”

Morton conceded that the research has produced “mixed results.” She did say, however, that the research does suggest that “single-sex education can provide some benefits to some students under certain circumstances.”

Leonard Sax, executive director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education (NASSPE) put it more strongly, noting “there are studies that show single-sex schools do boost test scores.”

For example, he cited a study in Toledo, Ohio, that found girls’ scores on standards tests rose after their school became an all-girls school.

But Sax said it’s important to look at other benefits beyond test scores. Single-sex schools “broaden educational horizons,” he said. “Girls in all-girls schools are more likely to study subjects such as advanced math, computer science, and physics. Boys in all-boys schools are more than twice as likely to study subjects such as foreign languages, art, music, and drama.”

According to NASSPE, 241 public schools offer single-sex educational opportunities, including 51 that are exclusively all-boys or all-girls schools (excluding correctional schools).

That’s up substantially from 1995 when just three public schools offered single-sex classes, but it’s still a tiny proportion of the nation’s 93,000 public schools.

The Atlanta school district, which already has some single-sex classes in some of its middle schools, is gearing up to open two single-sex schools in August 2007.

The new schools, one for boys and one for girls, will each start with about 160 or 170 sixth graders and will enroll grades 6-12 when fully operational in the 2013-14 school year, said Byron Barnes, the district’s project manager for single-sex schools. Both will be schools of choice.

The two schools will offer “the same rigorous curriculum” but will differ in such areas as teaching practices and reading selections, Barnes said. “We’ll look at best practices on how young boys and girls learn and how they can remain engaged in the instructional process -- how we can get boys more interested in reading and language arts and how we can get girls more interested in math and science.”

“Without any doubt, there will be an increase in the number of single-sex schools,” he predicted. “In August 2008, you’ll see a real surge in these schools.”

Many districts had discussed the concept but didn’t want to go forward until the final regulations came out, Sax said. He advises district officials interested in providing single-sex education to plan thoroughly and get parents involved before going forward. “If you don’t prepare, you don’t get good results.”

That’s what happened in Livingston Parish, La., when the school board scuttled plans to adopt single-sex classrooms in one of its middle schools after some students and parents complained and the ACLU filed a lawsuit to block the plan.

Despite the department’s assurances that the rules uphold the Title IX ban on nondiscrimination, some civil rights advocates were quick to cry foul.

“These regulations invite public schools to violate the Constitution, which forbids sex segregation in education in almost all instances,” said Emily Martin, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project.

Marcia D. Greenberger, co-president of the National Women’s Law Center, said the new rules “will disadvantage all students by allowing vastly expanded sex-segregation in our nation’s schools without proper safeguards against discrimination and stereotyping.”

For example, she noted, the rules could make it easier for school officials to say “girls cannot learn in a fast-paced competitive environment or need to be isolated as the only way to protect them against sexual harassment or teasing.”

At least some of the drive for single-sex education comes from the “boy crisis.” There have been numerous reports that boys are slipping behind girls in elementary and secondary schools and are becoming increasingly outnumbered on college campuses.

But “the real story is not bad news about boys doing worse; it’s good news about girls doing better,” says a study released in June by an organization called Education Sector.

In general, boys are scoring higher on the National Assessment of Educational Progress and other measures, but girls have improved their performance even faster, says The Truth About Boys and Girls.

Some groups of boys -- particularly Hispanics, blacks, and boys from low-income homes -- are doing poorly in school, the report notes. “But the predominant issues for them are race and class, not gender.”