Educators and public school leaders are always experimenting with new ways to improve classroom instruction and student learning. One of the latest trends involves new plans to educate students in single-sex classrooms.
While combined gender education has been, and continues to be, the strongest and most popular trend in public school classrooms, some educational experts assert that single-sex classrooms can boost student learning, performance, and behavior. In fact, studies proving the benefits of single-sex classrooms have been so positive that the Department of Education overturned its ban on single-gender classrooms, creating new legislation allowing public schools to implement single gender instruction once again. This new legislation was groundbreaking, as single-sex instruction has been prohibited in public schools since 1975.
With the new education legislation, school leaders are experimenting with new classroom designs to find out if a single-sex instruction can help save failing and struggling public schools and students. Currently, about 500 public schools are trying out new single-sex instructional models with the hopes that students will be able to focus and engage more effectively when separated from their opposite gender.
The Benefits of Single-Sex Classrooms
Single-sex classrooms, historically more popular in private schools, are essentially classrooms designed to teach all boys and all girls in separate settings. According to research, the cognitive, behavioral, and social development of the two genders is so different and unique that separating the genders allows for more