ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS
July 17, 1999

SINGLE-SEX CLASSES GET HIGH GRADE

ROSEVILLE STUDENTS SHOW FASTER IMPROVEMENT IN SINGLE-SEX CLASSROOMS

John Welsh,
Staff Writer

Free of distractions from boys, the seventh-grade girls of Roseville Area Middle School loved their girls-only math and science classes. The boys, not surprisingly, didn't like their boys-only classes.

``Boys interfere,'' said Alice Lin, 13. ``With girls, you can talk more freely. Boys will just make fun of you.''

Countered a 13-year-old veteran of the all-boys class: ``You lose a lot of time with the opposite sex and your interaction with them. That's not good.''

But following the Roseville School District's yearlong experiment with single-sex classes, the adults who teach or study the issue of how young minds learn are more intrigued.

During the year, students were surveyed, grades were monitored and classrooms were visited by researchers. This summer, University of St. Thomas researcher Karen Rogers concluded the study with a 40-page report.

Among her findings: Grades improved faster in the single-gender classes, and those classes proved to have more interaction between students and teachers.

The experiment - believed to be unique within Minnesota's public schools - was part of a research grant by the state Department of Children, Families and Learning. School officials say they want to discuss the issue further this fall, but by the end of the year they may decide to formally offer single-sex classes in math, science or language arts beginning in the fall of 2000.

``I'd like to see more choices for boys and girls. That's what I'd like to see based on the results,'' said principal Sarah Thompson. ``I don't think one size fits all for middle-school kids.''

The issue is controversial, and it isn't just the boys who wonder how great an idea sex segregation in the classroom is.

The American Civil Liberties Union has taken some school districts to court trying to block single-sex classes, saying they violate the equal protection clause of the Constitution and Title IX, the federal law prohibiting discrimination.

``We are looking at the issue,'' said Teresa Nelson, legal counsel for the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union. ``Anytime you are segregating children, there has to be a legitimate purpose. The issue is, can they justify it?''

Such concerns nearly sidetracked the Roseville study.

State regulators reconsidered the grant but then OK'd it after Roseville officials reworked the study to include single-sex classes for both boys and girls, instead of just girls. Based on what they know now, Roseville officials said they are thrilled that the experiment was changed because they now believe boys have just as much to gain from single-sex classes as girls do.

Not all of the 880 students at Roseville Area Middle School, which is in Little Canada, took part in the study. Instead, one section of 106 seventh-graders was selected, with half entering single-sex math and science classes and the rest staying in mixed-gender classes as a scientific control sample. The single-sex classes lasted for the first two quarters and then switched to mixed-gender classes for all students for the rest of the year.

Science teacher Dina Bizzaro said she was struck by the camaraderie shown in her all-girls class. Members of the class took care of one another and helped those who were struggling.

``They felt safe to say something didn't make sense to them,'' she said. ``In my mixed-gender class, I didn't see that.''

The interest in such research is strong. Later this year, Rogers will present her findings at the National Association for Gifted Children's annual conference.

Much of the movement toward single-sex education came after a 1992 report by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation titled ``How Schools Shortchange Girls.'' Pamela Haag, the group's research director, said studies of single-sex classes such as the one in Roseville are producing interesting results, but she isn't convinced that such methods are the answer to gender inequities faced by girls.

``We don't believe it is the silver-bullet solution. Single-sex classes won't solve all of the problems,'' Haag said.

Fighting sexism requires attacking the issue on many fronts, said Sharon Stenglein, math specialist for the state Department of Children, Families and Learning. But research into single-sex classes can reveal valuable insights about how girls and boys learn, she said, and those lessons could be applied to mixed-gender classes.

``This is a good approach to explore,'' she said. ``But it's a co-ed world. That's the reality.''

Research results encouraging Here are some of the conclusions from Roseville Area Middle School's study of single-sex math and science classes last year:

Grades of students in single-gender classes improved during the course of the year at a faster rate.

Single-sex classes tended to be more student-to-student and student-to-teacher interactive than the mixed-gender classes. Both of the single-sex classes got increasingly boisterous during the first semester. For the boys, sometimes that resulted in less positive competition over nonacademic areas; for the girls, the competition seemed focused on performance.

Less tangible things also were seen. Boys learned how to work on their own in math and science. Girls developed leadership skills. ``They learned to compete positively, while still tending to the needs of those who struggled,'' said researcher Karen Rogers.

The girls in the girls-only classes loved them and were unhappy when they went to a mixed-gender classroom later in the school year. The boys were happy to be back with the girls.

Teachers hoped the members of the boys-only classes would learn to work more cooperatively together, but this didn't happen. Eventually, some group learning projects in those classes were dropped.

\ John Welsh covers education issues in northern Ramsey County. He can be reached at jwelsh@pioneerpress.com or (651) 481-0285.

Illustration: Photo:CRAIG BORCK/PIONEER PRESS Alice Lin holds a corn snake and Jane Wong feeds a chinchilla in science club at Roseville Middle School. The two spent half the school year in single-sex math and science classes. A study of the yearlong experiment says grades improved faster in the single-sex classes, and the classes proved to have more interaction between students and teachers.