Single-sex schools make comeback

Jennifer Mrozowski / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- After he got into his fourth fight at an alternative school and failed most of his classes, Anton Lee Jr.'s mother forced him to enroll in Frederick Douglass Academy, an all-male public high school.

"When I first got here, I hated it," said Anton, 16, a sophomore. "I thought, 'I don't want to be wearing a blazer, and there are no girls here.' "

But Anton, who fought and skipped class at West Side and Trombly alternative schools, changed his attitude when girls weren't around. He went from failing to a 3.0 grade-point average.

"At an all-guys school, you have nobody to impress but you," he said.

Single-gender public school classes are on the rise nationally and in Michigan, where the Legislature approved a law allowing them in 2006, but experts and educators don't agree on whether separating girls and boys significantly raises their academic achievement without reinforcing gender stereotypes.

The American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations oppose them, saying single-sex public education is inherently unequal and not based on research, but advocates say single-gender classes remove distractions from the opposite sex and allow teachers to tailor lessons to the specific learning traits of girls or boys.

"In programs where you don't have girls, boys tend to be more collegial and work with each other," Frederick Douglass Principal Sean Vann said. "Boys have a tendency to be more hands-on and exploratory, but with girls you don't have that. And when you have girls, boys tend to evaluate the girls' response before they initiate a response on their own."

Educators, experts split

Frederick Douglass, on Detroit's southwest side, transformed from a program for troubled boys to college prep two years ago. Detroit Public Schools also that year opened Detroit International Academy, a girls high school on the north side that has 500 girls -- more than five times the enrollment it had in its first year. The school opened with a few grades and has added more since then. It now has grades nine to 12 and plans to add seven and eight in the future.

At Frederick Douglass, boys wear khaki trousers, crisp white shirts, red and blue ties and navy blazers. When the bell rings, students hurry to class so they don't get caught in a "hall sweep" that could result in suspension.

If a boy's tie is hanging too low off his neck, Vann points it out. Uniform violators get warnings and eventually receive after-school detention.

Since the college prep program and uniforms were introduced, discipline has improved and attendance skyrocketed. Fights are rare, Vann said. And while the school hasn't met federal student achievement goals and achievement is low, Vann said he expects to see improvements this year when students who have been in the college prep program for several years take the state exams.

Leonard Sax, a psychologist, physician and founder of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, acknowledged studies conflict on whether single-sex education improves achievement. He said the real benefit is that teachers, when properly trained, can address differences in what makes boys and girls want to learn.

"The big differences between girls and boys are not in ability at all; they are in motivation," Sax said.

Researchers at Stetson University in Florida conducted a three-year project comparing single-sex and coed classrooms at a Florida school and found students in single-sex classes, in most cases, outscored students in coed classes on state tests, said Bette Heins, education professor and director of the Hollis Institute for Educational Reform at Stetson.

But Jacquelin Washington, executive vice president of the ACLU fund in Michigan, said offering smaller classes or other programs can skew schools' ability to determine whether single-sex education really works. She said schools should drive their resources into educationally sound, research-based programs.

Yet educators here say the students thrive in single-sex classes.

Vann said boys in an all-male school try things they wouldn't ordinarily consider. His student council is jam-packed, and boys serve in roles that normally don't interest them, such as treasurer and secretary. About 20 boys take Latin, a new class this year.

At Detroit International Academy, where some walls are pink and students wear pink blouses, girls don't shy from "masculine" subjects, said Principal Beverly Hibbler. She points out that 26 girls participate in the school's robotics team and most seniors take physics and precalculus. Nationally, girls make up just a quarter of the average of 25 participants in high school robotics competitions for FIRST Robotics, a Manchester, N.H.-based robotics challenge.

Sophomore Akilah Johnson, 15, stayed away from robotics when she was in a coed middle school.

"I thought robotics would make me look nerdy, specifically to boys," she said. "At an all-girls school, I'm not so concerned about what people think."

She decided to join the team after a Detroit International science teacher encouraged her.

Carol Martin, a science teacher at Detroit International, said she caters to girls' natural learning motivations by seating them in groups of four where they work together. Girls help each other in understanding lessons, she said.

Parents want the option

At Berkshire Middle School in the Birmingham school district, Karen Boyk began offering voluntary all-girls math and language arts classes 12 years ago. Boyk, who also teaches coed classes, said girls in her all-girls classes are more likely to participate.

"Eighth-grade boys require lots of maintenance and take up a lot of time and attention," Boyk said. "(Girls) work more cooperatively in all-girl environment, and they ask more questions."

She also alters some lessons in the all-girls classes. When learning about the Revolutionary War, girls read books with female protagonists, she said.

But that's exactly what schools shouldn't do, said Washington of the ACLU.

"Yes, we need to know about female heroines, but so do the boys," she said.

Still, parents say they'd rather have the option of single-sex public schools. Detroiter Bridgett Walker, whose son Brandon, 13, attends Frederick Douglass, said her son's achievement improved at the all-boys school.

"When Brandon was in another school with girls, he couldn't stay focused," Walker said. "He was always thinking about girls."

Girls still call him after school, but that's OK, Walker said.

"Now, when I pick him up from school, he's happy. And he's always getting good grades."

You can reach Jennifer Mrozowski at (313) 222-2269 or jmrozowski@detnews.com.