The case for single-sex schools

Civil rights groups, particularly the ACLU and the National Organization for Women, have opposed single-sex schools. [Some opponents draw] on the Supreme Court decision in 1954 on Brown v. Board of Education. The court said separate is inherently unequal, that it really imposes a badge of inferiority on black children to be told that they cannot attend schools with white children. So the argument [by some] is, well, separate is inherently unequal not only with regard to race, but with any relevant criteria, including sex.

You can't compare these schools to what was going on in the South under forced segregation. Students are volunteering to attend single-sex schools.

How were historical single-sex schools different from the schools you visited recently?

Until the early 1970s in New York City, there was stunning sex segregation in vocational schools. The programs in the girls' schools were sewing and hairdressing, secretarial services, nursing - very traditional women's jobs. The boys' schools focused on automotive skills and aviation, jobs that were more lucrative. As a result of Title IX, those programs became illegal. The schools became coed or were redesigned.

The only single-sex schools that have continued are Philadelphia High School for Girls and Western High School in Baltimore. [These schools will permit boys, but none have asked to attend.]

Why are some educators so eager to set up single-sex options?

We're going on four decades of compensatory programs for at-risk students, particularly in the inner city. Even after allocating significant dollars into changing their academic and social circumstances, those programs have failed to stem this downward spiral.

We have scores of books and articles on how disadvantaged boys just don't identify with academic achievement. They gain their self-esteem from sports or from social popularity. And even disadvantaged minority girls too often seek validation in early motherhood.

The whole school-choice [movement] has created certain healthy expectations in poor parents, that they too have the right to choose the education for their children.

When you talk to the parents of children in these single-sex [public] schools, they feel certain that this is a right decision for their children.

Equal doesn't necessarily mean the same kinds of services have to be provided. Sometimes ... to achieve equal educational opportunity, we have to provide different kinds of opportunity to students.

What about the recent attention to boys falling behind girls academically?

[Some] see the issue as boys [being] disadvantaged or girls [being] disadvantaged. When you look at the data, you'll see that boys and girls are constrained in different ways. Perhaps many girls can benefit from an all-girls school in the middle years. Perhaps some boys can benefit in Kindergarten and grades 1 and 2.

I was so taken by a roomful of middle-school boys playing violin. You'd be hard pressed to see that in a coed school. Boys [in single-sex schools] have opportunities to take a leadership position in what would be considered female activities.

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