News

Morningside Middle to pioneer dramatic single-gender program

May 13, 2009

Morningside Middle School will be a pioneer among South Carolina public schools next year by going further than any other in creating single-gender learning environments.

The North Charleston school will house a boys school and a girls school on the same campus, with the goal of keeping them separated. That means two school entrances, two main offices, two carpool lines, two principals and two sets of teachers.

 
Alan Hawes
The Post and Courier

Morningside Middle School teacher Culdry Lecointe grills a class of sixth-grade boys. Lecointe helps keep their attention by throwing them a ball when they think they have the answer to a question. The school experimented with a few single-gender classes this year, but will convert the school to two single-gender academies next year.
Other schools offer single-gender classes, but those schools still operate as co-ed campuses with boys and girls interacting at various points during the day, said David Chadwell, the state's single-gender coordinator. Morningside Middle's approach to single-gender education will take it to the next level and, depending on its results, could be a model for the state and nation, he said.

No one knows whether this full-scale, all-out single-gender approach will be more effective in boosting student achievement in comparison with schools that have only a handful of single-gender classes. National research doesn't exist on the question, and Chadwell said anecdotal feedback has been that students'sults aren't dramatically different for schools with one single-gender class versus separating entire grades of students.

State officials are attempting to answer this question by gathering test scores from schools statewide, by requesting program reviews from schools using single-gender education and by surveying parents, teachers and students on their satisfaction with it.

Morningside Middle's results could make an enormous contribution to the state's efforts, he said.

South Carolina has become a national leader in offering single-gender programs. About 500 schools across the country offer all-boy or all-girl classes, and more than 200 of them are in the Palmetto State.

Charleston County school officials knew they needed to make some major changes at Morningside Middle after it became a Palmetto Priority School this spring. The state superintendent created the project as an alternative to state takeover, and these schools haven't made expected academic progress.

 
Alan Hawes
The Post and Courier

Nanely Moreno (left) and Jasmine Lucas work together Tuesday on a math problem in a singlegender class at Morningside Middle School.
The county school board discussed two weeks ago taking even more drastic action by reconstituting Morningside Middle, but it didn't move forward with that option. Still, district leaders recognized they needed to make some changes and chose a single-gender focus. Students who don't want to be a part of the school's new format will be able to transfer.

The physical school building will be renovated this summer so it limits interaction between the academies, and shared spaces such as the cafeteria and gym will be used at different times by boys and girls.

Teachers will be trained on brain research as it relates to gender-specific teaching strategies, and they will teach either girls all day or boys all day. Seventh- and eighth-grade teachers will stay with their students as they move up to the next grade, and class sizes will be smaller at all grade levels.

Morningside Middle Principal Kala Goodwine didn't have a cost estimate for the new program but said the school planned to use its existing funding in a different way rather than seek out more money. School board members heard a presentation on the proposal Monday night and seemed receptive to it.

"It is definitely different and challenging," said board member Ruth Jordan. "I hope that it will be very successful because we need to try something different. If we do the same thing, we're going to get the same results. It's long overdue."

Morningside Middle seventh-grader Kara Amafio has an all-girls English/language arts class this year, and she liked the idea of an all-girls school. She said many of her female peers fixate on boys and try to impress them instead of worrying about their school work. If boys and girls were separated, that distraction would be gone.

"That would be a big change," she said.

Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.