By Allie Bohm, Advocacy & Policy Strategist, ACLU at 2:08pm
As a visiting student at Barnard College years ago, I attended the transfer students’ orientation where each student was asked to explain why she had chosen Barnard. I’ll never forget one woman’s response: Well, I went to an all-girls elementary school and an all-girls middle school and an all-girls high school, and when I got to my co-ed college, I didn’t know how to function around the boys, so I decided to transfer to Barnard. Well, that’s one solution. I think I laughed at the time.
This week, as part of our “Teach Kids, Not Stereotypes” campaign, ACLU affiliates across the country filed administrative complaints and public records act requests seeking investigation of single-sex education programs rooted in sex stereotypes. We learned about one of these programs from Noah Saenz, a sophomore at Valley Charter High School in Modesto, California, who contacted the ACLU about the separation of students in his advisory class.
Picture this: You’re in fifth grade. Maybe you’re in sixth grade. And, you go to public school. You show up for class on Monday morning, and if you’re a boy, you’re ushered into a bright classroom. You’re given the option of sitting on a bouncy ball – or of standing at your desk or even of moving around the room, if you prefer. You’re also given stress balls to play with and headphones to keep out the noise the other students make, if you chose to use them. The teacher doesn’t look you in the eye, speaks in strong, direct tones, and gives minimal instructions, leaving you to figure out how to execute the assignment at hand. Your teacher talks about “‘being a man,’ that is, an adult male who is essential to his community’s care and development.” Businessmen from the community and other role models regularly come in to meet with your class or with you one-on-one.
By Allie Bohm, Advocacy & Policy Strategist, ACLU at 1:24pm
Imagine you’re a principal confronted with these facts: according to a 2010 report, the dropout rates for Black and Latino males are well above 50 percent in most cities, and Black and Latino males are less likely than any other demographic to enroll in or graduate from college. What do you do? A) throw your hands up in disgust and frustration; B) institute single-sex classes; or C) research what actually works in improving student performance?
By Allie Bohm, Advocacy & Policy Strategist, ACLU at 12:06pm
Central High School in La Crosse, Wisconsin has an anti-discrimination policy that reads pretty much like any other high school's anti-discrimination policy: It is the policy of the School District of La Crosse . . . that no person on the basis of sex, race, religion, national origin, ancestry, creed, pregnancy, marital or parental status, sexual orientation or physical, mental, emotional, or learning disability, may be denied . . . participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be discriminated against in any curricular . . . program . . . And, we're happy to report that Central High is finally back in the business of living up to its policy.
By Amy L. Katz, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 3:56pm
The Van Devender Middle School in Wood County, West Virginia, will return to coeducation next week, thanks to the efforts of a courageous mother who refused to allow her daughters to be assigned to discriminatory single-sex classes for another year. Girls and boys were separated at Van Devender for all core curriculum classes and were being taught using different methods based on dangerous sex stereotypes.
In recent years, the number of public schools segregating their students by sex has ballooned, despite mounting evidence that single-sex programs don’t improve academic performance and instead perpetuate sex stereotypes. But things are changing. This week, yet another school district — this time in Tallapoosa County, Alabama — agreed to stop segregating its 350 middle school students by sex. The development in Alabama follows a string of similar turnarounds by school districts in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Louisiana.
This week, the Pittsburgh Public School District agreed to drop sex-segregated classes at Westinghouse, a grades 6-12 public school, after the ACLU of Pennsylvania, the Women’s Law Project, and the ACLU Women’s Rights Project threatened to file a complaint with the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights.
