Title IX of the Federal law has discouraged single-sex schools on the basis of discrimination against gender. However, the single-sex classrooms are making a comeback in public charter schools and many fear this could be disadvantageous for children in view of their future workplaces, which are generally gender-integrated.
Among the newly-launched all-girls' school in Los Angeles are the Girls' Academic Leadership Academy or GALA and the Girls' Athletic Leadership School or GALS. An all-boys' school also opened in Washington D.C. and it is known as Young kings or the Ron Brown College Preparatory High School for boys.
Despite the opposition, many parents have chosen single-sex schools for their children. The reason? It is primarily because they believe that a single-gender school has tailored its instruction to the specific gender it caters to.
Research, however, showed that there is very little evidence that children who are enrolled in single-sex classrooms or schools are better off academically. On the contrary, Good Men Project reported that it can actually harm the children as it makes them ill-prepared for equal partnership not only in terms of family life but in workplaces as well.
According to The Conversation, gender segregation in education can be harmful. The publication pointed out a research conducted at the Arizona State University on what they called the gender segregation cycle.
The said research showed the more boys and girls are segregated, the more they grow apart and distinct from each other in terms of mutual understanding, abilities and attitude. By establishing single-sex schools, society does not only increase stereotyping and discrimination among genders but it also forfeits the opportunities for co-learning among both sexes.
Even though the reason for establishing schools like GALA and GALS is to prepare them for STEM education including computer science and engineering, which is dominated by men, there is no strong evidence that this is helpful in encouraging women to pursue the said careers, as per Huffington Post. It all comes back to the problem of gender segregation that is prevalent in the society.
Likewise, it also discourages men from getting into nursing literacy, education and health. So instead of segregating girls and boys, there should be more gender inclusion and integration.
