Single-gender classes remain popular option, support increases statewide

December 1, 2010 – A growing number of students,parents and teachers across the state say that single-gender classeshave a positive effect on attitudes and academic performance, accordingto a survey released today by the South Carolina Department ofEducation.

About 7,000 students in South Carolina’s single-gender programs, 1,120of their parents and 760 teachers responded to the annual 2010 surveyconducted by the agency.

Two-thirds of the students indicated that single-gender classes hadincreased their classroom performance and attitudes.  And parents andteachers said that single-gender classes had increased students’self-confidence, motivation, effort with school work, participation,good behavior and academic achievement.

“We’ve said all along that when it comes to learning, one size does notfit all,” said State Superintendent of Education Rex.  “These resultsshow that the single-gender option works for a lot of students and theirfamilies.  These classes continue to be a popular option where they areoffered.”

But Rex said that despite single-gender’s growing popularity amongparents, students and teachers, severe state funding cuts had causedschools to reduce the number of single-gender classes.  Although SouthCarolina’s 125 schools offering the option remains the highest of anystate, that’s down dramatically from 214 just two years ago.

“Single-gender classes are basically an add-on option because federallaw requires every school to offer co-ed classes,” Rex said.  “When aschool loses teaching positions to budget cuts, it can lose thescheduling flexibility to offer add-ons.  If a school has two-fifthgrade classes, for example, one of them is required to be co-ed so thatschool can’t offer single-gender.”

The Education Department estimates that local school districts haveeliminated 3,000-4,000 teaching positions over the past two years,resulting in fewer classes and larger class sizes.

Expanding curriculum choices within public schools has been a priorityfor Rex during his four-year tenure as state superintendent.  He createdthe Office of Public School Choice at the Education Department andhired the nation’s first single-gender coordinator to help localdistricts introduce the concept and make it operate effectively.  Thatoffice also has experts in Montessori and charter school development tohelp spur those innovations.

This year’s survey asked new questions about the students’ likelihood ofcompleting high school and about the effort students put forth in theirschool work.  Eighty-three percent of students responded that they weremore likely to finish high school, while 94 percent of their parentssaid that their children were more likely to graduate. Eighty-fivepercent of teachers saw increases in effort with school work, and 79percent of students reported increases in effort.

Current curriculum choices across South Carolina include magnetprograms, schools-within-schools, alternative schools, virtual schoolsand charter schools.  Some of the state’s public school choice programsinclude single-gender initiatives, middle college/early college,Montessori education, charter schools, evening high school, languageimmersion, academic academies, arts integration and internationalbaccalaureate programs.

Survey background

David Chadwell, the Education Department’s single-gender coordinator,said South Carolina’s student surveys are believed to be the first oftheir kind in the nation.  Participants were asked to indicate increasesor decreases in such things as student self-confidence, motivation,independence, participation, enjoyment of school, completing class workand homework, and ability to pay attention.

Chadwell said the survey was posted on the Education Department’swebsite during April and May, and all schools with single-genderprograms were informed that students, parents and teachers could respondon line. Participants came from 119 schools elementary, middle and highschools across the state.

The Education Department released only statewide results because thenumbers of responses from individual schools were too small to be ofstatistical value, said Chadwell, who added that 2009 and 2010 resultscould not be compared because of improvements to the survey thatemployed different questions to provide more detailed responses.

Study highlights

Students

• Girls tended to indicate increases across all categories(self-confidence, participation, motivation, etc.) at a higherpercentage than boys (58-98 percent and 44-99 percent).
• At the lower elementary level, girls indicated increased enjoymentof reading (98 percent), desire to follow class and school rules (98percent), positive self-image (96 percent) and enjoyment of school (96percent).
• At the upper elementary level, girls indicated increased likelihood ofcompleting high school (93 percent), effort with school work (92percent) and positive self-image (91 percent).
• At the middle/high level, girls’ biggest increases were 83 percentin likelihood of finishing high school, 79 percent in positiveself-image and 78 percent in effort with school work and selfconfidence, respectively.
• At the lower elementary level, boys indicated increased enjoyment ofschool (99 percent), enjoyment of reading (98 percent) and positive selfimage (95 percent).
• At the upper elementary level, boys indicated increased likelihoodof completing high school (90 percent), effort with school work (88percent) and positive self-image (87 percent).
• At the middle/high level, increases in the likelihood of finishing highschool was 83 percent for girls and 71 percent for boys; positiveself-image was 79 percent for girls and 65 percent for boys.
• Among ethnic groups, African-Americans and Asian-Americans had the highest percentage levels of increases in all categories.

Parents

• More than 80 percent of parents said single-gender classes were a factorin their child’s improvement, with parents of girls giving “increase”responses (89 to 96 percent) and parents of boys giving “increase”responses (85 to 93 percent).
• Across all questions and ethnic groups, African-American and Hispanicparents gave the highest percentages of “increase’ responses (86 to 95percent and 83 to 100 percent, respectively).
• Across all ethnic groups, the likelihood of completing high schoolreceived the highest percentage of “increase” responses (94 percent).
• Categories receiving the next highest percentages of “increase”responses were self-confidence (91 percent), positive self-image (91percent) and independence (91 percent).
• Though the difference was small, parents of girls consistently gave“increase” responses at a higher percentage (response averages rangingfrom 89 to 96 percent) than parents of boys (averages ranging from 85 to93 percent).

Teachers

• The highest categories of increases were noted by teachers of girls (84to 97 percent), compared to teachers of boys (71 to 89 percent).
• Teachers of girls noted increases in student self-confidence (97percent), class participation (95 percent), academic achievement (93percent) and motivation (92 percent).
• Teachers of boys noted the highest increases in class participation (89percent), self-confidence (89 percent) and collaboration (87 percent).
• Across all grades, teachers indicated increases with a response averageof at least 70 percent for each of the survey question topics.
• English language arts and science teachers gave “increase” responsesat the highest percentage levels, with averages ranging from 80 to 90percent.
• Math teachers gave “increase” responses at levels ranging from 70 to 90 percent.
• Social studies teachers gave “increase” responses at levels ranging from 60 to 80 percent.

For additional information about South Carolina’s single-gender initiatives, contact David Chadwell by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 803-609-9654.

Complete survey results:
http://www.ed.sc.gov/agency/Innovation-and-Support/Public-School-Choice-and-Innovation/SingleGender/documents/edited2SGISurveyReport11-02-2010.pdf