Same-Sex Public School Limits to Loosen
Wed Mar 3, 1:31 PM ET
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By BEN FELLER, AP Education Writer
WASHINGTON - Federal officials plan to significantly loosen their
restrictions on same-sex public education, giving schools the most
freedom they've had to teach boys and girls separately in almost 30
years.
In changing its enforcement of Title IX, the landmark law that
prohibited sex-based discrimination in schools, the Education Department
says it will expand choices for parents without eroding equal
opportunity. The regulations announced Wednesday reflect a push by both
the Bush administration and female senators of both parties to give
schools flexibility.
"We're not suggesting that any particular kid ought to be in a
single-sex setting," said a department official familiar with the
changes. "Educators and parents can make that decision. But the point
is, they don't have the freedom to make that decision even if they think
it's appropriate for their children...We're suggesting this ought to at
least be part of the mix."
Since 1975, when current rules went into effect, single-sex classes have
been allowed only in limited cases, such as gym classes involving
contact sports. The proposed rules would broaden the options
considerably, allowing school districts to launch single-sex classes to
provide a diversity of choices or to meet the particular education needs
of their students.
Schools would have to be "evenhanded," meaning they must treat boys and
girls equally in determining what courses to offer, and ensure any
involvement in single-gender classes is voluntary. For every single-sex
class they offer, schools would not be required to offer the other
gender the same separate class, but they would have to offer a coed
version of it.
The department's plan would also make it easier to create entire
single-sex schools.
Current rules allow those schools, but only when a district creates a
single-sex school with comparable benefits for the other gender. That
restriction would disappear.
Districts would still have to provide "substantially equal" benefits to
whichever sex is excluded from a single-sex school, but they could do so
in a standard, coed school.
The changes will not take effect immediately. The regulations will be
open for public comment for 45 days, and officials expect a final
regulation within a few months.
The impetus for change came in 2001, when Congress passed a sweeping
education law that called single-sex classes an innovative option and
opened them to federal funds. Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas,
Democrat Hillary Clinton (news - web sites) of New York and other female
senators led the charge, saying single-sex classes should be a viable
public school choice.
Since then, schools have been in legal limbo, awaiting clarification
from the department, said Leonard Sax, executive director of the
National Association For Single Sex Public Education. At least 91 of the
nation's 91,000 schools offer some form of single-sex education, with
most of those cases popping up in the last few years.
Although U.S. research on single-sex schooling is limited, advocates say
studies point to better student achievement, leadership and attendance
and fewer discipline problems. But critics, including the American Civil
Liberties Union (news - web sites), have criticized single-sex classes
as separate-but-unequal experiments that don't prepare students for the
integrated world.
The new proposal is written to affect elementary and secondary
education, not colleges. Single-sex vocational schools at the K-12 level
would remain prohibited.
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