Posted on 02/14/2008 5:28:40 PM PST by decimon
ATLANTA -- Students in all of Greene County's regular public schools will be separated by gender starting next fall, a move educators hope will improve rock-bottom test scores and reduce teen pregnancy and discipline rates in the small, rural system.
The school board approved the measure last week, drawing vocal protests from some students, parents and community members. It exempts only a charter school, which is public but operates independently from the rest of the system and has a limited attendance zone.
School officials say they need drastic change to save the low-performing district from slipping further behind the rest of the state.
"This school district is in bad shape," said Superintendent Shawn McCollough. "We've made very positive incremental steps in the last two years. Our kids need help faster than what we're doing, and that's why we're moving to a faster, more innovative program."
Districts nationwide have been scrambling to implement single-sex education, since federal officials finalized rules to ease the process in 2006. Nationally, there are 366 public schools that are either entirely single sex or have single-sex classrooms, according to the National Association for Single Sex Public Education.
But Greene County officials say they believe they are the first in the country to convert the entire district to a single-gender model.
Leonard Sax, head of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, said he knows of no other public school district that has switched entirely to single-gender classrooms. He called the move illegal.
Federal law allows single-sex classrooms or schools but parents must also have the option of a publicly funded coeducational experience for their children, Sax said.
"This is the worst kind of publicity for our movement," he said. "It misses the whole point. Our movement is about choice, about giving parents a choice. One size does not fit all. Even a small school district needs to provide choice."
He called the news of the school board's vote "very embarrassing."
U.S. Department of Education officials did not return several request for comment. Georgia Department of Education spokesman Dana Tofig said the district does not need state approval to convert to single gender.
But McCollough says he's been advised by the district's attorneys that the conversion is allowable under federal law.
"This is entirely legal and we're moving forward with it," he said.
Under the model approved by the school board, boys and girls in Greene County will be split into different classrooms in the district's two elementary schools and will attend a separate middle and high school, McCollough said.
The county's one charter school -- Lake Oconee Academy -- will remain coed. It is public, but has autonomy and is governed by a committee of parents and community leaders.
The charter school, unlike the rest of the county's public schools, has an enrollment zone focused on the predominantly affluent, white lakefront community south of Interstate 20. The rest of Greene is mostly black and middle class or low income.
The charter school opened last fall amid protests by black citizens who said the enrollment zones created de facto segregation. Attending the charter school would not be an option for the majority of families in Greene County, who live north of the interstate.
McCollough hopes the single-gender model will raise test scores and improve graduation rates in a district where more than three-quarters of the 2,000 students are eligible for free or reduced lunches.
Just 67 percent of Greene County ninth graders go on to receive a diploma, compared to 72 percent statewide. Last year, students scored an average of 1,168 on the SAT college entrance exam, far behind the state average of 1,458 and the national average of 1,495.
Less than a third of the system's 69 graduates got the B average required for a state HOPE scholarship last year. Statewide, 38 percent of graduates qualify for a HOPE award.
Research shows that when boys and girls are separated, each group performs better in school and is more likely to go to college, said Julie Ancis, a professor in the College of Education at Georgia State University.
But she said single-gender schools tend to be private institutions with updated technology and ample resources. Dividing students by gender in a low-income school system might not have the same impact, she said.
"There's more to this than just being with peers of your own sex," Ancis said. "We need for schools and teachers to create better climates that create more opportunity for everybody."
Greene County parents appear to be split over the move.
Dwain Evans said he's thrilled that his three children will have a chance to attend single-gender schools.
"If we continue to do status quo, we can't expect any better outcome," he said.
But Eula Davis is angry she wasn't consulted before the vote. She was even angrier when her sixth-grade daughter, Miranda, was suspended for two days last week for passing out a flier encouraging students to protest the conversion by wearing white T-shirts and jeans on a specific day of the week.
"I would like to have more input. I would like to know more about it," Davis said.
Karen Lewis -- who has a daughter in the senior class, a son in 10th grade and a 3-year-old -- said she wants her children to learn how to interact with the opposite sex before completing high school. She wants options for her children, she said.
"This is the only public school system in Greene County," she said. "It was almost like, 'You do what we say. This is how it's going to be."
Separate but Equal? Mmmmm...
How does sex segregated education reduce teenage pregnancy?
What provisions have been made for the gay, lesbian, and transgendered students? If the goal is to have students be in a place where they aren’t attracted to fellow students, then this won’t work for the gay students.
Just a thought............
“Students in all of Greene County’s regular public schools will be separated by gender starting next fall, ...”
Maybe the ones for boys will teach them the difference between “gender” and “sex”.
“The charter school opened last fall amid protests by black citizens who said the enrollment zones created de facto segregation. Attending the charter school would not be an option for the majority of families in Greene County, who live north of the interstate. “
Well, well, well. Some things just don’t change do they. Don’t question your betters it sounds like to me. Don’t they know that liberals think that the laws don’t apply to them? Or that choice is only for them? So sad.
Ping!
No discipline, criminal students, crap teachers, crap supplies...they have nothing to say.
Tell the little darlings to turn off their cell phones in class or not wear their Black Panthers t-shirt to school, and they've never been so outraged in their lives and can't believe "they weren't consulted".
Some things you still can't email.
I guess that the separation reduces both opportunities and temptations.
They're doing it at school?
Yeah, because we know students usually get knocked up IN SCHOOL.
Sheesh. So giving them seperate schools is supposed to make them forget the opposite sex exists?
Ok,,,Here we go again! The government pushes people around like kicking an ant hole.
Parents are concerned about their individual child and government is worried about aggregate group scores.
In a completely private system parents, teachers, and principals would decide matters ( such as co-ed or single sex) quietly and with mutual agreement and respect. Surely parents know better than any bureaucrat in what environment their child would best thrive.
As for ten pregnancy rates: Among the many things the government will not do is teach the religious, moral, and ethical values that support marriage, faithfulness in marriage, and restraint of sexual behavior until marriage.
I concur. My wife and I were having gender the other night when this subject came up.
Don’t they know that liberals think that the laws don’t apply to them?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The kids of the liberals who thought this up go to private schools.
The state **average** on the SAT is 1,495? Huh? Isn’t a perfect score 1,600?
Have they re-normed the SAT or something?
Incremental steps that speed up the process of getting down to business once they're alone.
Have they re-normed the SAT or something?
This is Georgia. Southron Aptitude Test.
Excellent idea. My son and daughter both went to single-gender high schools. I wouldn’t have done it any other way, especially after teaching in a public high school. Separating boys and girls would go a long way to improving education because it would cut down on disruptive behavior and distractions (two of the least recognized but significant none-the-less) factors to the impediment to education, in my opinion.
A year or two ago they changed the SAT to have a math test, a verbal test, and a writing test, each worth 800 points for a total of 2400. The writing part is essentially the same as the old SAT II writing achievement test
I would have exepected them to go to a 3 or 4 sex format rather than single sex.
Ya know, for a minute there I thought it might be some new kind of educational ewxperiment. you know, “OK students, how can any of you truly know what your gender is. Your parents have been gender programming you since birth, but what if they got it wrong? Well, this year we’re going to assign all students in North Middle School to the gender ‘female’ while south is ‘male.’ This will let you get in touch with your true gender neutral side.” (not to mention each other).
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