Single-Sex Education. A Public Policy Issue. Project Report.

Overview & Synopsis

This article reports a study of the public policy implications of publicly supported primary and secondary single-sex education in the United States. Twenty-two public intellectuals concerned with educational issues were interviewed. Subjects were either academic researchers, government officials and legislators, directors of public interest groups and educational associations or practicing lawyers and legal scholars. In general, informants expressed strong hesitations about public K-12 single sex education, and stressed the need for an overhaul of co-education as a solution to educational problems. Some informants, however, believed that the potential pedagogical benefit of single-sex K-12 public education was worthy of further study. Most subjects urged a stricter enforcement of Title IX (which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational institutions which receive Federal funding) to preserve and further aims of gender equity. Responses are included from the informant groups on issues of creating equal outcomes from an educational system, the role of Federal law, the level of scrutiny toward gender-based classifications in education, the changing trend toward single-sex K-12 education, and public policy implications of single-sex education. The legal aspects of single sex education, including an analysis of statutory, regulatory and case law, are considered. An appendix provides a section-by-section analysis of Title IX. (Contains 21 references.) (JPB)