Eighth-graders Anamaria Alvarez, left, Hafsah Khan, Nubia Amaya, Karen Perez in 1-sex class at Sahuarita Middle School.

James Gregg / Arizona Daily Star

More Photos (1):

Related articles:

Separate classes for boys and girls not the solution Career's the thing as schools evolve

Other articles by Kimberly Matas:

Monty Webb was an accomplished teacher, musician Van Slyke, longtime lawyer, had wide value to city D-M program deploys kids for a day UA professor ranged from audiology to spirituality Hauntings Tour resurrects Downtown historySteven Sles: Handicap not in picture for multitalented artist Casas Adobes Congregational pastor dies Marjorie Cole: She was a code breaker, envoy, athletePearl Hart: Smooth-talking card shark led Pearl's slide to perditionRoberto Arellano: Silver-screen hopeful wrote own script

Construction
Komatsu Equipment Co
Mechanic General
CORT
WAREHOUSE/DRIVER Health Care
Rio Salado College
PA's/Online Instructors General
CORT
Warehouse Supervisor Education
Assessment Technology, Inc
Social Studies Content Writer

Schools in Vail and Sahuarita are part of a movement in public education: gender segregation.

Based on the theory — and many say science — that girls and boys learn differently, for the last three years Sahuarita Middle School has been offering all-girls and all-boys math and pre-algebra classes for students struggling with AIMs tests.

Cienega High School in Vail began offering single-gender math and science classes this year.

They are the only public school districts in the Tucson area offering classes segregated by sex.

Administrators, teachers and parents in the two districts are enthusiastic about the classes, but others — including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Organization for Women — consider it inappropriate.

Kathy Shiba started the gender-specific math classes when she was the principal of Sahuarita Middle School. It was the teachers, she said, who requested the program. They were concerned, Shiba said, that some students were afraid to speak up in class in front of classmates of the opposite sex.

Shiba said she did some research before deciding to establish the math classes for students who were underperforming on the AIMs test.

"It really shows some definite data that this would work," Shiba said.

In smaller, single-sex math classes, Shiba said, her teachers "found the students were raising their hands, taking more risks and thinking more about math than the opposite sex." And test scores have improved.

Impressed by the results, Shiba will start single-gender math classes at Sahuarita's Anza Trail K-8 school when it opens in January and she takes the helm as principal. She is also considering expanding the single-gender concept to one or two other types of classes.

Cienega High Principal Tricia Peña implemented single-gender math and science classes this school year for any students who wanted to take them. She based her decision on a proposal presented by one of her teachers who now works at Empire High.

"We haven't made the decision yet if we are going to keep this for next year," Peña said. It will depend on whether the students express interest. But so far, "I haven't heard from anybody that this is a bad idea. That's what's interesting."

Yet, there are some who disagree with the idea of single-gender education.

This summer the American Civil Liberties Union threatened to sue the Livingston Parish School Board in Louisiana over "gender-based segregation in two junior high schools," according to The Livingston Parish News Online, because the schools did not offer a choice between coed and single-gender classes. This month the school board scrapped plans for gender-divided classes.

Both the ACLU and the National Organization for Women say single-gender education is discriminatory and reinforces gender-based stereotypes.

"We see this as their dressed-up versions of old stereotypes — the boys are going to have to be bullied and the girls are going to have to be coddled. It doesn't prepare them for the real world and it reinforces these discriminatory stereotypes," said Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona based in Phoenix.

Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization of Women, based in Washington, D.C., said, "From our point of view, the school is the workplace of childhood. That's where boys and girls work and learn together and begin to model adult behaviors."

"There are studies that show boys in particular who go to single-sex schools tend to have superiority over girls," Gandy said. "If you've never had a girl kick your butt on an algebra test, how can you expect a man to work under the leadership of a woman?"

Not only are single-gender classes inequitable to both girls and boys, but they are also illegal under Title IX — a prohibition against discrimination in schools, according to the ACLU.

"We think it's unlawful to provide any sort of single-sex education in a coed facility. We think it has dangerous and negative side effects," Meetze said.

Instead of instituting single-gender classes, Meetze said schools should find ways to create smaller class sizes, increase pay for teachers and improve parental involvement.

"Those are reforms that work, and those make more sense than separating the boys and the girls based on the outdated stereotypes," she said.

Debbie Hedgepeth, assistant superintendent of the Vail district, and Desi Raulston, assistant principal at Sahuarita Middle School, both said they are not violating Title IX by offering single-gender classes.

"The reason that it is legal with Title IX is that … it's the students' choice whether or not they're placed in that classroom. Also, we offer the same curriculum and instruction practices for both classes. We are delivering the same educational service," Hedgepeth said.

Because Sahuarita Middle School only recommends to parents that their children take the single-gender classes, it is in compliance as well, Raulston said.

Even if it is segregation, single-gender classes work, say teachers, parents and students.

Cienega biology teacher Kevin Steeves was skeptical about single-gender classes when he was hired to teach science — including gender-specific classes — at the school. But he said he's since changed his opinion.

"When I was interviewed they asked what I thought of it, and at first I didn't agree with it because when they go out to get a job it's not going to be all boys or all girls, and I thought they should be exposed to it," Steeves said. "Since I've actually done some research on it, most … said it benefits both sides."

Though Steeves has not seen much of an academic difference so far, he said class participation in the single-gender classes has increased dramatically over participation in coed classes.

"In an all-boys or -girls class they are much more talkative and much more willing to participate in class," he said.

Cienega junior Brandon McCollum, 16, is enrolled in an all-boys chemistry class.

"I like it. I never really was much of a science person, and I'm actually doing pretty well," he said. "There's not a lot of distractions and you focus more on your work; none of the dramatic stuff because there are no girls."

That's exactly why Tomi Rand is pleased her son, a sophomore, is enrolled in an all-male science class at Cienega.

"I totally love the fact that my son is in an all-boys science class," she said. "He's at an age where he's distracted very easily by girls, and I think for at least math and science it's a really good idea to have the boys and girls separated. They can excel at their level and not worry about being cool."

Nellie Sprunt's daughter Missy, a junior, is enrolled in an all-girls chemistry class at Cienega.

"I believe that there is a gender difference to how the children learn," said Sprunt, who has two sons and two daughters. "Boys just are more competitive; they think differently than girls. They like to reach conclusions fast. My boys, they enjoy activities that are more fact-oriented.

"My girls are different. They like to chat a lot, they are more social. They are not competitive; they like to learn as a group; they like to share ideas and talk about it. They are more open-minded."

Missy Sprunt, 16, signed up for the all-female class because it fit into her schedule. Though there isn't much difference for her between coed and single-gender classes, Sprunt said she sees other students behaving differently in the girls' class.

"I see that the girls raise their hands more, they ask a lot more questions," she said. "In coed classes you could tell they didn't really understand it and they would ask their (female) neighbor instead of the teacher."

Danielle Tennyson, 16, opted to take the girls' chemistry class for another reason.

"I chose to enter that class because of the things I had heard about it, like how statistics have proven that girls work better in an environment where they're with other girls, so I wanted to test that theory out to see if that was really true for me," she said.

"I really enjoy it. I'm more comfortable being around all the girls. I'm more comfortable when it comes to going up in front of the class and doing presentations, and the atmosphere of the class is different than when we have boys around.

"I think there's a difference when it comes to the distractions boys bring," Tennyson said. "I think a lot of the distractions come from guys trying to show off in front of the girls."

Tennyson, a junior, said she would be willing to take other all-girls classes.

On StarNet: Find more information on local schools at azstarnet.com/education