 | | | | | Single-Sex Classes
Pioneer Press
BY DOUG BELDEN
Article Last Updated: 12/21/2007 12:39:00 AM CST
St. Paul's Battle Creek Middle School proposes change to all-day single-sex classes.
Even
as the success of its same-sex classes remains uncertain, St. Paul's
Battle Creek Middle School is considering taking the experiment
schoolwide.
Battle Creek Middle School students, from front left, Natasha Buechner, Aaliyah Horman and Erin Moseng wait with other classmates to go to lunch at the end of their all-girls social studies class. Students are separated by gender for all of their core classes and lunch; elective classes are co-ed. (JEAN PIERI, Pioneer Press)
Lori Sumner has her English class arranged in rows of desks this year, instead of tables. She has a plastic basketball hoop taped above her trash can to make a target for wadded-up paper, and a fresh supply of novels aimed at boys has replaced the "teenage-angst love stories" she used to keep on her bookshelves.
Sumner is teaching all boys this year at Battle Creek Middle School in St. Paul, which has gone further with same-sex instruction than most public schools and is leaning toward taking the next step.
For the past year and a half, the Battle Creek staff has been taking a model used for centuries at private schools and more recently at small charters and applying it to a large population of high-need students in an urban public school.
"It's still an experiment. It's a work in progress," Sumner said. "We feel like we're sort of plowing the road."
Early data on student achievement and behavior at the school show neither has improved by separating the boys from the girls. Some teachers have reported frustration with the new system.
But the school recently got word single-sex teaching will be around for a while, and discussions are now focusing on a proposal to split the school entirely next year into separate boys' and girls' programs.
"We've basically been faced with a challenge," said Jamin McKenzie, an eighth-grade science teacher. "Now it's up to us to make it work for the kids."
In 2006-07, Battle Creek separated seventh-graders for math, science, English and history. The move was partly an attempt to improve achievement - some research suggests students focus better without the distraction of the opposite sex - and partly a way to carve out a niche to attract new students.
Enrollment did rise slightly, and this year all 690 seventh- and eighth-graders are divided by gender for core classes and lunch.
But as the single-gender experiment progressed, teachers started reporting some problems.
Kids seemed more wound-up in elective courses, which are co-ed, perhaps because after being separated from the opposite sex all day, they really wanted to interact when they got the chance.
And the single-sex courses were challenging to manage as well. Behavior problems associated with each sex - acting out for boys and chatting for girls - seemed to intensify in classes made up entirely of one gender.
Data on student achievement at the school the past two years aren't encouraging, though it's difficult to tell what effect the single-gender design has had on that.
Last fall, for example, 15 seventh-graders (in single-sex classes) were failing pre-algebra, and 19 eighth-graders (in co-ed classes) were failing Algebra I. This fall, the number of eighth-graders failing the single-sex Algebra I classes has jumped to 83, but some of that increase could be due to implementation of a new math curriculum, said Principal Jocelyn Sims.
Reports of disruptive activity have tripled from last fall to this fall among last year's seventh-graders, Sims said, and the biggest problems seem to be in boys-only classes. But discipline numbers may have been affected by the fact that the school went from four assistant principals to two, she said.
On the positive side, teachers say they have been able to focus instruction in same-sex classes in ways that make the content more meaningful.
Jordon Anderson said his all-girls earth science class decided to learn about the structure of galaxies by breaking a universe they were familiar with - the Mall of America - into smaller and smaller parts.
Some teachers also report students being more willing to take risks and engage in class without fear of being teased by the opposite sex. "They're much more willing to take the ribbing of another boy," said Sumner of the boys in her English classes.
By the time Sims took over as principal in April, the fate of same-sex instruction was Topic No. 1 at Battle Creek.
As she and her staff continued to assess how it was going, district leaders announced last month that they plan to split students by gender next year at North End Elementary, based in part on Battle Creek's experience.
With that announcement, it became clear same-sex classes were at Battle Creek to stay, and discussion started moving toward total separation for next fall: Boys and girls apart all day, for core courses and electives, with schedules arranged so they don't even pass each other in the hallways.
"If we are going to do it, we need to at least do it right," Sims said.
Seventh-grade math teacher Doug Surgenor said he believes same-sex instruction will pay off in the long run.
Once you figure out how to handle the behavior issues that intensify with split-gender classrooms, he said, the arrangement can be a powerful tool for engaging students.
He is teaching boys this year, and he said that by splitting them into teams and having them compete against one another, he has been able to involve even the boys who are typically quiet.
"I really do think that they can learn better from this set-up," he said. "It's going to be a process where you see things phased in and it gets better and better."
Surgenor said he believes it will benefit students socially in the long run as well, even though they might doubt that. "You really see the camaraderie being built," he said. "I see friendships being stronger."
Some students are skeptical.
Part of school involves "learning about the people that you're going to grow up with and work with in life," said eighth-grader Kelsey Barabash. "It seems like a private school they're making it into."
"I'm scared the boys will be scared of the girls next year" in high school, said eighth-grader Gaozong Vang, the student body president. She has been pushing to make lunch periods co-ed to give students "a time to talk with the other sex and get to know them."
Sumner, the English teacher, said she is keeping an open mind about the school's new direction. "I don't believe it's harming the kids," she said. "I can't tell you exactly how it's helping them yet."
She said she misses co-ed classes, but she's committed to making it work with her new pupils. Sumner said she's noticed those students seem to have trouble sitting quietly at tables together, crave routine and are unable to throw a piece of paper away without balling it up and taking a jump shot.
"I'm learning a lot more about boys, and it's good for me to do that," Sumner said.
Doug Belden can be reached at dbelden@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5136.
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