FMF Study Shows Increase In Nationwide Single-Sex Public Education

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FMF Study Shows Increase In Nationwide Single-Sex Public Education


Map of Coed K-12 Schools with Single-Sex Academic Classes

WASHINGTON, DC – The Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) just completed its second national study “Identifying US K-12 Public Schools with Deliberate Sex Segregation.” We found that instead of decreasing sex segregation, the number of public K-12 coed schools with single-sex academic classes and all-girls and all-boys schools have continued to increase since the 2006 Title IX regulation that made it easier to establish single-sex K-12 public education. The FMF together with the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education requested that this 2006 regulation promulgated by the George W. Bush administration be rescinded. Moreover, advocates have urged that the federal government issue guidance as to what justifications and procedures are essential to make sure that any deliberate sex segregation is in full compliance with Title IX, the US Constitution, and other civil rights laws.

This 2014 FMF study showing the continued increases in public school sex segregation is being released about the same time as the long awaited US Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) guidance in the form of “Questions and Answers on Title IX and Single-Sex Elementary and Secondary Classes and Extracurricular Activities.”

“We are concerned that the numbers of single-sex K-12 public education programs are growing despite increased evidence that they are legally and educationally unsound,” says Sue Klein, Ed. D., Education Equity Director for the FMF. “While it does not rescind the 2006 Title IX regulation, this December 1, 2014 OCR guidance should help public K-12 schools using (or planning to use) deliberate sex segregation to understand that it is necessary to justify their sex segregation based on many critically important legal non-discrimination/equality principles,” continued Klein. Both FMF studies (“State of Public School Sex Segregation in the United States 2007-10” and “Identifying US K-12 Public Schools with Deliberate Sex Segregation“) revealed that many of these principles have been routinely violated by schools using deliberate sex segregation practices.

8 QUICK TAKEAWAYS FROM THE 2014 REPORT:
The number of coed schools with single-sex academic classes has increased 24%, growing from 564 in the period 2007-2010 to 699 in 2011-2012
The number of all-girl and all-boy single-sex public schools has increased 29% in the same period, growing from 82 schools in 2007-2010 to 106 in the 2014 FMF study
More of the single-sex academic classes were for male students than female students, but there were more all-female schools than all-male schools
43% of coed schools with single-sex academic classes had a majority African American and/or Latino/a student population
35% of these coed schools had a 75% or more majority white student population
South Carolina, Florida, Texas and North Carolina had the most public coed schools with single-sex classes
New York and Texas had the most all-female and all-male schools
Almost none of these schools provided any information on their single-sex status on their school websites, leaving parents unable to make informed decisions about voluntary participation in deliberate sex segregation.

http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2014/12/23/fmf-study-shows-increase-in-nationwide-single-sex-public-education/