National ACLU News
Sex Segregated Schools:
Separate and Unequal
The ACLU
Women's Rights Project works to ensure that public schools do not become
sex-segregated and that girls and boys receive equal educational
opportunities. In recent years, many school districts have introduced
programs that allow for expanded use of single-sex education, often presenting
these programs as quick-fix solutions to the array of problems facing many
public schools. This trend sharply accelerated in October 2006, when the U.S.
Department of Education announced new Title IX regulations making it easier
for public schools to implement single-sex schools and classrooms.
In addition to being unlawful, the rationale behind
sex-segregated academic programs is bad for kids. These programs are often
based on questionable science about how girls' and boys' brains develop and
on disturbing gender stereotypes. For example, advocates of sex-segregated
schools tell teachers that:
1. Boys
need a competitive and confrontational learning environment, while girls can
only succeed if they work cooperatively and are not placed under stress;
2. When
establishing authority, teachers should not smile at boys because boys are
biologically programmed to read this as a sign of weakness;
3. Girls
should not have time limits on tests because, unlike boys, girls' brains
cannot function well under these conditions; and
4. Boys
are better than girls in math because boys' bodies receive daily surges of
testosterone, whereas girls don't understand mathematical theory very well
except for a few days a month when their estrogen is surging.
Although these ideas are hyped as "new
discoveries" about brain differences, they are, in fact, only dressed up
versions of old stereotypes. Creating sex-segregated schools and classrooms
is a waste of time and effort that diverts resources from initiatives that
actually will improve the education of both boys and girls—such as reducing
class sizes and increasing teacher training. Moreover, these sex-segregated
classes deprive students of important preparation for the real, coeducational
worlds of work and family. Rather than offering choice, sex-segregated
programs limit the education of both boys and girls.
The ACLU opposes sex-segregation in public education
because it is unconstitutional, because it perpetuates antiquated gender stereotypes,
and because it deprives both girls and boys of the benefits of co-education.
More
information on the ACLU Women's Rights Project work on sex segregation is available at:
www.aclu.org/womensrights/edu/30129res20070614.html
ACLU
of Alabama
News
PRESS RELEASE: NOVEMBER 12, 2008
ACLU Warns Alabama
School District That
Its Mandatory Sex Segregation Program Is Illegal And Discriminatory
MOBILE, AL – After hearing from outraged parents of students
who, without notice, were involuntarily segregated by sex at Hankins Middle School
in Mobile, Alabama, the American Civil Liberties
Union and the ACLU of Alabama sent a letter to the Mobile County School
System today warning that mandatory sex segregation in public schools is illegal
and discriminatory. The civil liberties organization also asked, under the
Alabama Open Records Act, that the school district make public any and all
documents relating to sex segregation policies in Mobile County
schools from the past two years.
“Mandatory
sex segregation in public schools is not only clearly against the law, it’s
also an empty promise for failing schools,” said Allison Neal, staff attorney
with the ACLU of Alabama. “Inevitably these experimental programs deny equal
opportunity to girls and boys and distract much needed time and money from
efforts that we know work like smaller classes, highly trained teachers,
sufficient funding and involved parents. Sex segregation doesn’t make public
schools more like private schools. If some private schools provide a better
education, it’s because of their resources, not because they are
single-sex."
Without
notifying parents, Mobile County School System segregated the entire student
body of Hankins
Middle School by sex
for the 2008-2009 school year and failed to provide any coeducational option.
In addition to segregating students for all academic subjects, the sex
segregation program goes so far as to punish boys and girls who are caught
speaking in the hallways.
The
ACLU charges that mandatory sex segregation in public schools violates Title
IX of the Education Amendments, the Equal Education Opportunities Act and the
U.S. Constitution.
Mark
Jones, whose son, Jacob, is a seventh grader at Hankins Middle School,
is outraged that his son’s school was segregated by sex.
“Absolutely
nothing good can come from segregating our kids. It’s an outdated mode of
education that sets gender equality back to the dark ages,” said Jones. “I
also worry how our children are supposed to learn how to behave around the
opposite sex when schools like Hankins Middle School threaten them with
punishment if they so much as talk to each other.”
Another
parent, Terry Stevens, whose son attends the eighth grade at Hankins Middle School, said, “I want my son in
a coed school to prepare him for the real non-segregated world. It’s simply
not right that the public school system is forcing me to send him to a
sex-segregated institution.”
According
to Jones, the school principal told him that the change was necessary because
boys’ and girls’ brains are so different that they needed different
curriculums.
A
recent review of existing data by the U.S. Department of Education showed
that there is no consistent evidence that segregating students by sex
improves learning by either sex. Yet, school districts across the country are
experimenting with sex-segregated programs, which all too often rely on
questionable “brain science” theories based on outdated gender stereotypes
that suggest that teachers should treat boys and girls radically differently.
“There
is no evidence that sex segregation improves learning, but what we’ve seen is
that sex segregation in public schools denies equality to both boys and
girls,” said Emily Martin, Deputy Director of the ACLU Women’s Rights
Program. “For example, if the best math class in the school happens to be the
girls’ class, the boys are completely shut out simply because of their sex.”
The
Mobile County School System has 30 days to respond to the ACLU's Open Records
Request.
In
addition to the ACLU, organizations that have previously opposed the type of
segregation at Hankins
Middle School include
the national NAACP, the National Education Association and the American
Association of University Women.
The
ACLU's open records request is available online at: http://www.aclu.org/womensrights/edu/37737lgl20081112.html
Thank you for your continued support of civil liberties
in Alabama!
Olivia Turner
Executive
Director, ACLU of Alabama
207 Montgomery Street, Suite 910, Montgomery, Alabama 36104
T: 334-262-0304 | F: 334-269-5666 |
info@aclualabama.org
www.aclualabama.org
|