Percentage of students scoring proficient on the FCAT

Establishing single-gender classes requires time for planning, training for teachers, and a thorough review of the federal regulations.

Every year, we administer student, parent, and teacher surveys at schools with single-gender classes with regard to self-confidence, motivation, participation, and desire to complete hard work. Last year's results show that an average of 60 percent of the students' self-reports indicate that these characteristics increase by being in single-gender classes.

Structure and connection are two key concepts when examining gender in the classroom. All students certainly need both, but it seems that teachers need to consider the issue of structure more with boys and the issue of connection more with girls.

Single-gender education is a legal option for any K-12 public school, and it can be implemented quickly and at little cost

Common Claims Against

For urban African-American and Latino males, single-sex education is viewed as a way to counter dropouts and the school-to-prison pipeline

In addition, it is suggested that single-sex schools tend to overemphasize academics at the expense of “whole child” development

Children, at an early age, should be taught to co-exist so they can face the world’s challenges head on

Single gender classroom settings are not fit for some boys and girls

They lessen the pressure on students

Boys and girls prefer different temperature settings

Pros and Cons of Single-Sex Education

Many teachers may not have the training to employ gender-specific teaching techniques.

In fact, girls are less likely than boys to be held back in American schools, too, so some argue that the effort put into helping girls in the classroom may be counterintuitive, when the boys are the ones who aren’t doing as well.

Detractors of same-sex classrooms weren’t surprised since one of the biggest drawbacks of single-sex classrooms is the lack of concrete evidence that they boost achievement. As Margaret Talbot wrote in her 2012 New Yorker piece, “The evidence wasn’t very good then [the ’90s] for a gap between the genders’ learning styles so significant that it would mandate separate instruction, and it hasn’t gotten any better.”

In 2006, the No Child Left Behind Act added a provision giving single-sex classrooms and schools the ability to exist as long as they are voluntary.

The Foundation study, which suggests that single-sex education is more beneficial for girls than for boys, is somewhat at variance with an earlier study which suggested that single-sex education was more beneficial for boys than for girls. Educator Graham Able published a study of student performance in 30 coeducational and single-sex schools in England. Dr. Able's study documented superior academic performance of students in single-sex schools, after controlling for socioeconomic class and other variables. "The most significant finding was that the advantage of single-sex schooling is even greater for boys in terms of academic results than for girls," Able said. "The unsubstantiated mythology of the educational establishment has been that girls do better in single sex schools but that boys are 'brought on' by the more studious girls in a co-educational environment. This mythology has never been supported by any objective evidence, and any policy derived from it must presumably sacrifice the advantages to one sex in order to promote the cause of the other," he wrote. "[Our] results suggest that single sex schools give an even greater academic advantage to boys than for girls. This directly contradicts the popular educational myth that boys do better in the classroom if girls are present to set them a good example. One could reasonably conclude from this study that both boys and girls are academically disadvantaged in co-educational schools, but that the disadvantage is greater for the boys.

The all-girls format can greatly enhance the engagement of girls in physics. That reality was demonstrated most dramatically by the research of Bettina Hannover and Ursula Kessels.

The single-gender format is better for some students, and coed is better for others

Boys at boys' schools also earned significantly higher test scores compared with boys at coed schools; likewise, girls at girls' schools also earned significantly higher test scores compared with girls at coed schools

Girls attending girls' schools were significantly more likely to attend a 4-year college compared with girls attending coed schools (Cohen's d = 0.5, p < 0.01). Likewise, boys who graduated from boys' schools were significantly more likely to attend a 4-year college compared with boys who graduated from coed schools (Cohen's d = 0.8, p < 0.01).

National Association for Choice in Education

Advocates of single-sex education do NOT believe that "all girls learn one way and all boys learn another way." On the contrary, we cherish and celebrate the diversity among girls and among boys.

Girls who learn in all-girl environments are believed to be more comfortable responding to questions and sharing their opinions in class and more likely to explore more “nontraditional” subjects such as math, science, and technology.

Studies suggest that when boys are in single-gender classrooms, they are more successful in school and more likely to pursue a wide range of interests and activities.

Single-gender education and the often-spirited dialogue surrounding it have raised a number of issues concerning the best manner to educate boys and girls

a sensitive boy might be intimidated by a teacher who “gets in his face” and speaks loudly believing “that’s what boys want and need to learn

when asked if they’d consider a single-sex school for their own children, only 14% said they “definitely would” and 28% said they “probably would.”

More than one-third of Americans feel parents should have the option of sending their child to a single-sex school.

Single-sex education is illegal and discriminatory, or so states the American Civil Liberties Union

Dr. Schlosser theorizes that a higher percentage of girls lowers the amount of classroom disruption and fosters a better relationship between all students and the teacher.

Dr. Schlosser theorizes that a higher percentage of girls lowers the amount of classroom disruption

At least one study found that the higher the percentage of girls in a co-ed classroom, the better the academic performance for all students (both male and female)

Students in single-sex classrooms will one day live and work side-by-side with members of the opposite sex.

natural differences in how males and females learn

Advocates claim co-ed schools tend to reinforce gender stereotypes, while single-sex schools can break down gender stereotypes.

Some research indicates that girls learn better when classroom temperature is warm, while boys perform better in cooler classrooms

students of the opposite sex can be a distraction

In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman

I have looked at it so long I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.

Faces and darkness separate us over and over

I am not cruel, only truthful

I stretched thy joynts to make thee even feet, Yet still thou run’st more hobling then is meet

Yet being mine own, at length affection would

Thy Visage was so irksome in my sight

I cast thee by as one unfit for light,