Segregation By Gender Doesn’t Help Schoolgirls Teachers Are The Key To End Bias In Schools

A women’s group that backed experiments to separate boys and girls in public schools said Thursday it has found no conclusive evidence that girls perform better academically without boys in the classroom.

Regular co-ed classes and teacher training are better areas of focus to improve learning while ending bias, the group said.

Almost all the research examined by the American Association of University Women looked at private schools, Catholic schools and public schools in other countries - not at the scattered American public schools where experiments in single-sex schools or classrooms are taking place. Because of the lack of hard data, the group urged more study.

Earlier complaints by the AAUW and others about bias against girls in education helped start those experiments in California, Illinois, Maine, New Hampshire, New York and Virginia.

“What the research shows is that separating by sex is not the solution to gender inequity in education,” said Maggie Ford, president of the Washington-based group’s education arm.

“When elements of a good education are present, girls and boys succeed.”

The group said gender stereotyping occurs in single-sex education as well as coeducation. “Sound teacher training is the key” to ending such bias, said Sandy Bernard, president of the AAUW.

The report was based on an AAUW-sponsored discussion held by researchers who met last November to look at the available research. The report outlined basic points of agreement and said most of the literature was anecdotal.

The panelists had intense discussions on the politics of pushing gender equity: “Can a good education be considered excellent if it doesn’t reach the vast majority of students - girls and boys of all backgrounds, abilities, looks, incomes?” the report said.

The debate among researchers, the report went on, is whether the benefits that could be found were unique to single-sex programs or other factors, such as small classes and schools, intensive academic curriculum and a controlled and disciplined environment.

“The key finding of this research is that any school, single-sex or coed, that sets high standards and has a rigorous academic program will give young women the skills they need to succeed,” Education Secretary Richard Riley said in a statement.

Among the conclusions found in the research was that although girls’ achievement improved in some single-sex schools, there is no significant improvement in girls’ achievements in single-sex classes. Some researchers found that such classes “disrupt the coeducational public school environment.”