KING MIDDLE SCHOOL: Splitting up boys, girls Single-sex education gets a try in
Atlanta:[Home Edition]
PAUL DONSKY. The Atlanta Journal - Constitution Atlanta, Ga.:Aug 21, 2003. p. A.1
Subjects:
Segregation, Gender, Public schools
Locations:
Atlanta Georgia
Author(s):
PAUL DONSKY
Document types:
News
Section:
News
Publication title:
The Atlanta Journal - Constitution. Atlanta, Ga.: Aug 21, 2003. pg. A.1
Source type:
Newspaper
ISSN/ISBN:
15397459
ProQuest document ID: 386775461
Text Word Count
1305
Document URL:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=386775461&Fmt=3&clientId=8832&RQT=309&VName=PQD
Abstract (Document Summary)
Map Map of the Grant Park neighborhood, where Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School is located. Area
of detail highlights Atlanta. / Staff Photo Jerica Chandler concentrates on her mathematics alongside
other students in her all-female class in King Middle School. It is the only public school in metro Atlanta
that offers single-sex education. A Savannah school is also giving the experiment a try. / RICH
ADDICKS / Staff Photo [Khaia Smith] calls on students in her language arts class. She feels free now
to pick books that appeal to young men. Boys no longer blow off academics in a bid to impress girls,
she notes: "It's cool to be smart, it's cool to be a leader." / RICH ADDICKS / Staff Graphic Martin
Luther King Jr. Middle School > Enrollment (last school year): 626 > Sixth-graders: 228 (118 males,
110 females) > Percentage receiving free/reduced lunch: 93% > Black: 89%; Hispanic: 9%; White: 2%
Source: Staff research
Full Text (1305 words)
(Copyright, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution - 2003)
When sixth-grade student Mayosie Davis showed up for the first day of school at Atlanta's King Middle
last week, she could hardly believe it.
There weren't any boys in math class. None in language arts, either. Social studies? A boy-free zone.
The entire sixth-grade class has been separated by gender this year for everything but lunch and an
elective course. Boys take their core academic classes in one area, girls in another.
"I miss them," Mayosie says with a sheepish smile. "I'd rather hang around boys than girls."
King is the only public school in metro Atlanta and one of only 32 public schools nationwide that offer
single-sex classes, according to the National Organization for Single Sex Public Education. The list
includes one other Georgia school, in Savannah.
King's principal, Carolyn Huff, said that the change strips away some of the distractions that plague
middle schools --- hormone- charged students flirting with each other, fighting over one another,
fussing with their hair and clothes. Huff cited research showing that boys and girls learn differently and
appear to thrive in separate settings.
The goal, the principal explained, is to boost King's test scores, which have crept up in recent years
but remain among the lowest in the state.
"We thought we could just get the right books, just get the right program, just get the right materials,"
Huff said. But she came to the conclusion that turning the school around required a dramatic change.
Parents signed off on the plan, school officials said.
"I know we are a trailblazer with this," the principal said.
The single-sex movement is small but growing, and it's stirring a debate among educators, women's
groups and legal scholars that in some ways echoes civil rights battles over racially segregated
schools. Separate schools for boys and girls used to be the norm across the nation. Atlanta had singlegender schools as recently as the late 1940s.
Terry O'Neill, vice president of membership in the National Organization for Women, argues that
gender segregation is a step backward for girls.
"Segregation implies inferiority, bottom line," O'Neill said. "They separate men from women in
fundamentalist Muslim cultures, too. They did that in Afghanistan. It's not the answer. It takes us very
much in the wrong direction. You have to encourage [boys and girls] to work together."
Debbie Seagraves, executive director of the Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union,
said efforts to separate boys and girls at public schools may violate the federal Title IX law, which
outlaws sex discrimination in education.
"There's no such thing as separate but equal," said Seagraves. "Separate will become inherently
unequal as time goes on."
Merits hotly disputed
The single-sex education movement got a big boost last year from President Bush, whose No Child
Left Behind school reform law authorized the use of single-sex classrooms provided that they didn't
discriminate based on gender.
The federal Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights is drafting a set of regulations that should
clarify the issue, a department spokeswoman said.
Research on single-sex education is mixed. For example, after an elementary school in Seattle
switched to single-sex classrooms in 2000, its reading scores tripled and discipline referrals
plummeted from 30 a day to just one or two. But a high-profile 12-school effort in California in the late
1990s was deemed a failure and abandoned.
Advocates of single-sex education say it makes sense to address the differences between boys and
girls.
For instance, girls who stand on the sidelines in coed classes become more competitive and outgoing
in an all-girl environment, said Leonard Sax, a physician who founded the National Association for
Single Sex Public Education. Boys tend to talk loudly and learn better when free to move about, Sax
said.
"If you visit an all-boys school and an all-girls school, everything is a lot louder in the boys school," he
said. "The classroom is conducted at a much higher decibel level. The teacher is raising his voice.
That is appropriate, given what we know about how girls and boys learn."
Huff, King's principal, said single-sex classes may help reduce what she calls the "dumbing-down"
phenomenon --- boys who refuse to give correct answers, do their work or pay attention because "it's
just not cool to be smart." Without girls in the room to "impress" with their slacker attitude, the theory
goes, boys will be more likely to care about school.
Decibel levels differ
At King, the boys are called the Distinguished Gentlemen, the girls the Debutantes.
In the boys' area, math teacher Travis Brown leads a lesson. The room hums with energy. Brown
marches among the desks, talking loudly. Some boys sit on their knees, others restlessly stand up and
sit down.
Nearly everyone barks out answers the moment Brown is finished asking a question. And there's no
evidence of any "dumbing-down." In fact, the class gleefully corrects a minor mistake one student
makes at the board.
In the girls' area, math class is an entirely different affair. The girls politely stay in their seats, raise
their hands when teacher Gigi Miller asks a question, and wait to answer until they are called on. For
long stretches the room is virtually silent.
'More focused'
King teachers say they can tell the new approach is working. Behavior has dramatically improved, they
say, and students are paying more attention in class without the distraction of the opposite sex. They
noted that the girls wore fairly skimpy clothing for the first few days --- but once they realized boys
were not around for most of the day, they began wearing less revealing outfits.
"Last year it was a struggle to keep them focused," said Cheryl Darville, who teaches social studies to
boys.
Khaia Smith, who teaches boys language arts, said she likes being able to pick books she knows the
boys will like, which helps hold their interest. And dumbing-down is on the wane, she said.
"It's cool to be smart, it's cool to be a leader," she said.
Student Carolyne Ouya, 11, says she liked the single-sex environment.
"We get to learn a lot better without the distraction of us thinking about [boys] all the time," she said.
"Now that we're here, I'm more focused on my work."
Phyllis Dawson, whose son, Carlos, is a sixth-grade student at King, said there was less fighting and
more studying with girls out of the mix.
"The girls distract them, with the clothes that they wear," Dawson said. "There's no fighting. You know
how guys and girls call each other names and stuff? There's none of that."
Some students pine for the days when boys and girls got to see each other all day long. Deterio
Thurmand, 12, said it was boring without girls around.
Are "the girls coming back"? Deterio asked Huff between classes.
"You miss the girls?" Huff asked.
"Everybody does," Deterio said.
[Illustration]
Map
Map of the Grant Park neighborhood, where Martin Luther King Jr.
Middle School is located. Area of detail highlights Atlanta. / Staff Photo
Jerica Chandler concentrates on her mathematics alongside other
students in her all-female class in King Middle School. It is the
only public school in metro Atlanta that offers single-sex
education. A Savannah school is also giving the experiment a try. /
RICH ADDICKS / Staff
Photo
Khaia Smith calls on students in her language arts class. She feels
free now to pick books that appeal to young men. Boys no longer blow
off academics in a bid to impress girls, she notes: "It's cool to be
smart, it's cool to be a leader." / RICH ADDICKS / Staff
Graphic
Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School
> Enrollment (last school year): 626
> Sixth-graders: 228 (118 males, 110 females)
> Percentage receiving free/reduced lunch: 93%
> Black: 89%; Hispanic: 9%; White: 2%
Source: Staff research
Credit: STAFF