STAB to try single-sex classes

By Barney Breen-Portnoy

Published: March 31, 2008

St. Anne’s-Belfield will begin an experiment in single-sex education this fall. Fifth-grade boys and girls will be separated for math and science courses, as St. Anne’s investigates whether single-sex classrooms provide more conducive environments for student learning and achievement.
“There is a body of evidence that brain differences in boys and girls are such that, to have one group as audience, you can tailor lessons in a better ways to capitalize on learning differences,” said St. Anne’s middle school head Fred Chandler. “We think it is worth trying out, but we are not committed to go beyond that if we don’t see that the benefits are great. I am fascinated and intrigued by the possibilities, but it is important to remember that it is an experiment.”
Single-sex classes within the context of a co-educational school could potentially offer the best of both worlds for students, Chandler said.
David Jones, who will teach one of the single-sex classes this fall, is excited about the opportunity.
“I’m psyched about giving this a shot and seeing how it works,” he said. “I think it will be fun.”
This past winter, some St. Anne’s fifth-graders took part in a four-week pilot single-sex poetry class.
Liz Freshwater, who taught the boys poetry class, said the pilot was “pretty informative.”
According to Freshwater, the girls appeared to benefit the most.
“It seemed like the girls appreciated single sex more than the boys,” she said. “Girls felt more free to express themselves because they were not concerned about what the boys would think.”
In the boys class, Freshwater said the energy level was much higher and that she had to work harder to keep the students busy.
Chandler said that there was a “different tenor” in the single-sex classes.
“What we saw was that both the boys and girls were more focused and engaged in discussions,” he said.
Parent feedback about the pilot was generally positive, Freshwater said. Many girls talked about it extensively with their parents, although some of the boys barely seemed to notice the change.
“Girls said that they liked the quiet and that they could concentrate and focus better,” Freshwater said.
Research shows that math and science might be the areas where girls benefit the most from a single-sex environment, which is why the two subjects were chosen for the upcoming experiment, according to Chandler.
Chandler said baselines would be established to measure the effectiveness of the experiment.
St. Anne’s will wait to see how the year goes before deciding where to go next with single-sex education.