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Education Week confirms S.C. leads in single-gender education

May 9, 2008

COLUMBIA -- South Carolina's leadership in single-gender education programs is confirmed in a feature article published this week by the national magazine Education Week.

The article by reporter Michele NcNeil - "Single-Sex Schooling Gets New Showcase" - was posted online May 6 and appears in the May 7 print edition. It says that single-gender programs are being offered in 97 schools in the Palmetto State and in at least 400 schools nationwide.

South Carolina is at the forefront for statewide implementation.

Education Week notes that single-gender programs are a top priority for State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex and are part of his move to create more public school choice options for parents and students. Rex set up an Office of Public School Choice at the South Carolina Department of Education last year and hired the nation's first statewide single-gender coordinator to help local districts introduce the concept.

That coordinator - David Chadwell - told Education Week that schools with successful single-gender offerings seem to have two common factors: principals who are willing to try a different approach toward raising student achievement and teachers willing to do the same.

Chadwell says there is no "model program" that schools can copy, and he believes classes should not be split by gender just because "it's the next education fad."

The magazine reports on single-gender schooling at Kingstree Junior High in Williamsburg County and at Killian Elementary on the north side of Columbia in Richland District Two. Killlian's separate boys' and girls' classes in fourth and fifth grade have experienced a dramatic drop in the number of discipline incidents, according to school officials.

Since August 2006 Kingstree Junior High has separated boys and girls in the four core classes of language arts, math, science and social studies. Officials have seen improved test scores and fewer behavior problems. Education Week quotes principal Margie Myers on other positive effects experienced by her students: "Their self-esteem is up. They're enjoying class. They're enthusiastic."

The magazine says these results echo the Department of Education's 2007 survey of student attitudes about single-gender classrooms. More than 1,700 students responded and, overall, three out of four agreed that the single-gender approach was helping them in school.

Rex told Education Week that he supports single-gender initiatives because they are practical and cost-effective. "We know there are lots of strategies to improve schools ...but single-gender is a strategy that can make a difference now," he said in an interview for the article.

The Times and Democrat