Providing new opportunities or reinforcing old stereotypes? Perceptions and experiences of single-sex public education

There has been a widespread increase in single-sex public schooling in the U.S. following 2006 changes to the Department of Education regulations motivated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Single-sex public schooling is viewed as a means to improve the educational experiences and performance of low-income youth of color. Yet little is known about its effects and efficacy, particularly for these populations. This article is based on a community-based participatory research project, on which high school students and university researchers collaborated, conducted in a low-income, African American high school implementing single-sex courses. Our findings challenge proponents' key assumptions that single-sex education will improve the academic achievement of low-income youth of color by 1) eliminating distraction from the other sex; 2) addressing the different learning styles of girls and boys; and 3) remedying inequities by offering these youth opportunities traditionally afforded to more privileged youth. While some distractions were decreased, others were increased or ignored; racialized stereotypes of hypersexuality and essentialized notions of gender were reinforced; and students felt punished rather than privileged by being separated by sex. We conclude that single-sex education as a public school option is a neoliberal approach to addressing low achievement that deflects attention from the structural inequities that created the problem and implicitly blames those experiencing oppression.