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."
Since when is single sex education innovative?
The SAT now includes 3 sections, each with a perfect score of 800. So the total score is now 2400. There's the Math, the Verbal, and a new Writing section, where the students have to write an Essay. That was added because colleges were finding that some students who had been accepted because of their fabulous essays, didn't always do well with their writing when they got to the school. They realized that the kids weren't writing the essays they were sending to the colleges. With the new test, they have a better idea of the actual writing ability of the students.
The school is so out of control that girls get raped in the bathrooms, teachers are threatened and verbally assaulted (maybe physically also, but I can’t say on that). The sheriff sucks and nothing is done. The PC crowd brought this about. The school system there is absolutely horrifying. The people need to elect a real law enforcement official who will treat criminals like criminals, not like “poor wittle kids who just can’t help themselves”
As for the private school - Lake Oconee Academy - these people are a far cry from liberals. RINO’s maybe, but certainly not liberals. And they pay the vast majority of property taxes (which pay for schools).
When kids are allowed the act like animals, they will.
And if government would get out of the schools, things would even be better.
“No, but in school is where the boys can work on the girls until they’re malleable once they’re alone. School is where they meet up and then ditch together. School is where they progress from staring across the room to holding hands in hallways and kissing in doorways when no adult is around.
Incremental steps that speed up the process of getting down to business once they’re alone.”
I agree!! I remember High school being a place where distractions were great. notes were passed and staring at a good looking guy was way more important than listening to the teacher. perhaps it will also erase the temptation for the kids to dress for the opposite sex. Maybe we’ll start seeing a little more taste in the clothes they choose.
nothing wrong with the idea
it removes ALL social-attention concerning the opposite gender from any major role in the classroom of young students
actually, its not needed as much for pre-k, k and maybe grades 1 and 2
but by grade 3, older siblings/relatives/children, their knowledge and their relationships are already influencing 3rd graders to social-pairing between the sexes, and with all the related social concerns
they will exist, no matter what
but limiting the venues in which they actively alter behavior, to outside the classroom, does reduce how much they can reduce focus and dedication to academic achievement
by late teen years, the segregation can be less effective because the social-pairing focus has become such a strong and persistently active focus anyway - the late teens to whom it is least harmful by then arrive with an already working good academic focus, and those without it are distracted from such a focus in or out of the classroom
Nice try on reducing teen pregnancy. If anything, it will go up because the kids go crazy when they do see someone of the opposite gender.
Not a bad idea.
The advantage to single-sex schools is not in keeping the kids from gettting up to mischief, it’s in helping the kids learn that there is something more than their own little desires and neighborhoods. If the school can show the kids that they can actually make something out of themselves, if they don’t mess up their lives with drugs, and having kids too early, thus being stuck in poverty, they might just become successful.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.