State nixes Tacoma's gender-divided classrooms

A bold educational program at Jason Lee Middle School has ended after Tacoma Public Schools officials learned that it violated state education regulations.

Last year, the school launched single-gender classes for all sixth-grade boys and girls in their core academic subjects: math, science and humanities.

The move was an attempt to boost student achievement at one of the city’s – and the state’s – lowest-performing schools. Jason Lee leaders had planned to use the model in both sixth- and seventh-grade core classes this year.

But state education officials told the school district this summer that gender separation is limited to certain types of classes – physical education, classes that deal with human sexuality, and choir when the division is based on vocal range or quality.

So this year, all Jason Lee’s core classes are back to coed.

Yvonne Ryans, director of the Equity and Civil Rights Office at the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, said the state issued a memo to Washington public school districts Aug.1 as a reminder of state rules. She said the memo was not aimed at Tacoma.

But Ryans said the Jason Lee experiment came to the attention of state officials earlier in the year.

“We let them know that it was prohibited,” she said.

The concept of teaching boys and girls in separate classes or schools has been around a long time. In the United States, it is done primarily in private and parochial schools. But the idea has been controversial in modern public education because it touches on American ideals of equal opportunity.

In years past, educators have worried about girls, especially in subjects such as science and math. More recently, the focus has shifted to boys and whether they are being left behind in today’s classrooms.

Supporters of gender-separate instruction cite recent biology research that focuses on gender differences in the way males and females process the world around them. Some theorists argue that separating kids by gender, and targeting teaching methods to match gender differences, might help kids learn more easily.

The number of U.S. public schools offering single-sex classrooms rose from about a dozen in 2002 to more than 500 this school year, according to the National Association for Single Sex Public Education.

Jason Lee Principal Jon Kellett said he wasn’t aware of the Washington state rules when the program was set up before the 2010-11 year at the high-poverty school on the edge of the Hilltop neighborhood.

“Other schools in Washington had done it prior to us,” he said.

He said he did review federal law, which permits the practice.

“I didn’t realize state law was more restrictive,” he said.

The federal No Child Left Behind law does contain language about single-gender education. But federal rules also require that comparable courses are available to both sexes, and that parents and students have other coeducational choices available to them.

State law, however, is far more restrictive. It says that “all classes shall be required to be available to all students without regard to sex.” The law notes that exceptions can be made for sex education or gym classes. State regulations also allow the exception for vocal music classes.

Kellett said feedback from parents and students last year was generally enthusiastic. He said he wanted to try the idea to increase academic achievement.

Last December, 70 percent of Jason Lee sixth-grade boys had met or exceeded the school district math standard, according to the school. Only 40 percent of the boys had scored that well as fifth-graders.

Because of past poor performance, Jason Lee, along with Stewart, Giaudrone and Hunt middle schools, qualified for an infusion of federal grant money last year – an estimated $11 million over three years intended to pay for reforms at the schools.

Although that grant money wasn’t spent on implementing Jason Lee’s single-gender classes last year, there were tentative plans to use the federal dollars for future teacher training on the subject.

Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635
debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com