Data on Single-Sex Schools

In this episode
It may seem like a new development, but single-sex education is actually a throwback to older curriculum systems that date back to before the 19th century. Are single-sex classrooms beneficial to students today? We're joined by a panel of educators who weigh in on the benefits and drawbacks of same-sex classroom environments. 

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Final thoughts
What is a common misconception about single-sex schools that you wish more people understood?

Quinterrence Bell
Principal, ​Excellence Boys Charter School Elementary Academy

There are many stereotypes out there — when people hear terms like "all boys school" or "all girls school", they have some pre-conceived ideas that come to mind. Whatever those stereotypes are, we have to do the work of unpacking them right away.

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Josh Duennebier
Teacher and Director of the Brunswick Faculty Institute

​For me, the common misconception is that you are getting a smaller group of people — and you are, but you are not getting a smaller sample size. There's a tendency to equate a smaller group with one that's narrower. But there's so much personality in a single-gender school. There are opportunities everywhere you look. 
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Dr. Stephanie McCall
Co-Founder and Principal of Re/scripted
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I would like school leaders and teachers to consider the explicit ways in which gender gets compacted or stereotyped, including with curriculum, dress codes, and language around boys and girls. As opposed to messages about proper or improper gender, or proper masculinity or proper femininity, which are traveling in very hidden and subtle ways. 

While it’s easy to look at some of the bigger policies within a school, I think it's the hidden and invisible relations that can be the scariest. What I would like people to really take a look at in their schools is: how are notions of gender and sexuality traveling in ways that we can't see? ​
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TAGS: DATA-DRIVEN INSTRUCTION, TEACHING TODAY