A state constitutional amendment and subsequent laws designed to protect women from discrimination are now being used to stop programs aimed at helping those same people.
Unintended consequences? Bureaucracy run amok? Political correctness? Probably none of the above directly, but perhaps a combination of all three.
The issue is whether Washington public schools can offer same-gender classes, especially in courses where boys and girls are achieving at strikingly different levels. As part of a school transformation program, Jason Lee Middle School on the edge of Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood decided to give it a try.
First-year middle school students were broken up by gender in math, science and humanities. The principal and teachers involved seemed enthusiastic that it allowed them to tailor instruction to differences in how boys and girls learn.
Thirty-nine states and Washington, D.C., offer either same-gender schools or same-gender classes. The practice has grown since Congress clarified that they are legal and eligible for federal funds. The 2001 change resulted from a bipartisan effort by Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton.
But Jason Lee’s classes were mixed again when school began last week. State education officials notified Tacoma that gender-separation is illegal in Washington except in gym, sex ed and choir.
School officials had relied on federal law and weren’t aware of the state ban until notified by Superintendent of Public Instruction staff.
Why is Washington one of the 11 states that doesn’t even give public schools the option of having some same-gender classes?
National testing comparisons show girls underperform in math and science, while boys underperform in reading. Girls, in turn, are less likely to pursue technical degrees and boys are now less likely to pursue any degrees at all.
Real problems. Any ideas that might help should be considered. Much of the research into the issue shows that test scores increase for both genders and that the positive effect is higher for girls.
The separation also can improve classroom dynamics. In mixed classes, adolescent girls sometimes defer to boys or don’t want to appear too smart and the boys tend to dominate conversations (and also don’t want to appear too smart). Advocates don’t say all students should be in such classes, only that it should be an option for some students and some parents.
But not in Washington. The state doesn’t appear to have debated the issue directly. Instead, the origins of the ban are in the state Equal Rights Amendment. A law that followed the 1972 amendment passage stated: “Inequality in the educational opportunities afforded women and girls at all levels of the public schools in Washington is a breach (of the amendment).”
The subsequent state law banning these classes starts at a good place by saying that no “courses” can be offered separately based on gender. I take that to mean a school couldn’t determine that high-level math or science or even a shop class could be boys only.
The law then overreaches by saying a district can’t “carry out any of its education programs or activities separately on the basis of sex.”
But there is nothing inherently unequal about same-gender classes. If the kids have the same curriculum, if they have teachers of equal competence and if there is no showing that one gender suffers, there is no discriminatory effect. If it boosts learning, it should be used.
Opposition comes mostly from women’s groups and seems based on civil-rights history, especially the Jim Crow-era discrimination against blacks in public schools. But this idea helps girls. And some of the nation’s most successful gender-specific schools are improving achievement of black students, especially black girls.
“It is ironic that a nondiscrimination provision designed to protect a disadvantaged group is now being used to prevent that same group from getting an advantage,” said Paul Hill, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington Bothell.
Peter Callaghan: 253-597-8657 peter.callaghan@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/politics
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