Education Week, May 7, 2008
Single-sex education gets new showcase. This feature article highlights the leading role which South Carolina is playing in the growing popularity of single-sex public education, with particular emphasis on the benefits of the gender-separate format for low-income African-American students. Be sure to check out the map of the United States showing which states have how many schools offering single-gender schools.

New York Times, March 2, 2008
Teaching Girls and Boys Separately. This lengthy story for the cover of the New York Times Sunday magazine is a major disappointment, with many distortions and misrepresentations. Click here to read Dr. Sax's detailed rebuttal of the New York Times article.

Springfield, Illinois, February 24, 2008
Students' grades higher in single-sex classes: also, discipline referrals are down, attendance is up. This article describes the results at Jefferson Middle School, which launched single-sex classes for 7th and 8th graders after teachers received training both from NASSPE director Dr. Leonard Sax as well as from David Chadwell, Director of Single-Gender Initiatives for the state of South Carolina and a member of the NASSPE Advisory Board. Students in the single-sex classes "are getting substantially better grades, keeping higher attendance rates, and running into less trouble than students in coed classes. Girls in the program are doing better in math and science, and boys are doing better in reading and writing."

Tampa - St. Petersburg, Florida, December 23, 2007
"Something magical has happened at Westside Elementary School . . .". "Girls are coming out of their shells. Boys are working hard. . . Chalk it up to single-sex classes." In June 2007, half-a-dozen teachers from Westside Elementary School attended a two-day, 14-hour workshop on best practice for gender-separate classrooms, hosted by Stetson University and led by Dr. Leonard Sax, director of NASSPE. Now those teachers are seeing tremendous benefits from the strategies they have employed in their single-gender classrooms -- benefits for both girls and boys. Click here to read the full article.

Charleston, West Virginia, November 7, 2007
Academics up, discipline referrals down: both girls and boys benefit from single-gender classrooms. This article describes three public schools in Charleston (the capitol of West Virginia) which have begun offering single-sex classrooms. "From the management standpoint, it's awesome," says George Aulenbacher, principal of Stonewall Jackson Middle School. "My teachers love it from the academic standpoint. Behavior is awesome," he adds. "You don't have the boys and girls with the ‘he said and she said' stuff. If there's an issue, we can get it worked out." Discipline referrals are going down and all students are enjoying school more at Anne Bailey Elementary School, according to Anne Bailey's principal, Edward Rider. Melissa Smith is a sixth-grade science teacher at Stonewall Jackson Middle School. She has taught for five years and couldn't believe the difference with gender-based learning, according to this story in the Charleston Daily Mail. If the school ever switches back to mixed classrooms, she believes many teachers would leave. "There would be a mass mutiny," she said. While she spoke, a sixth-grade boy came up and gave her a big hug. "See, that would never happen if there were girls here," she said.
Read the full story at this link.

Associated Press, September 30, 2007
South Carolina leads the nation in number of gender-separate classrooms. David Chadwell, a member of the NASSPE Advisory Board and Director of Single-Gender Initiatives for the State of South Carolina, has helped to organize and oversee many of that state's single-sex educational opportunities. Partly as a result of Mr. Chadwell's efforts, South Carolina now leads the nation in the number of schools offering single-sex classrooms, with 71. You can find a full list of American public schools offering single-gender classrooms, broken down by state, at this link.

Potomac News, January 25, 2007
Northern Virginia middle school to launch gender-separate classrooms. The key point in this story comes at the very end. One wise parent asks her son what he would prefer to have for supper: pizza or broccoli? He says PIZZA. Then she asks: what would be healthier for you? He sighs and says, broccoli. Gender-separate education may not be what middle school kids PREFER, but it may be best for them (at least for some of them).

Las Vegas Review / Las Vegas Sun, January 8, 2007.
This article about two Las Vegas schools is actually two different articles pasted together. The first article describes the success of the gender-separate format for remedial English in a Las Vegas middle school. The second article describes the launch of the gender-separate format for regular (non-remedial) classes at a Las Vegas high school.

Chicago Tribune, November 18, 2006
Lead editorial in the Chicago Tribune endorses single-sex public education, correctly observing that the key is choice. Expand the range of choices available to parents within the public schools.

Daytona-Beach News-Journal, November 17, 2006
Florida school leads the nation. The extraordinary success of the single-sex program at Woodward Avenue Elementary School has made headlines in the national media (including USA Today, People and Newsweek magazine, as well as an October 2006 feature on the CBS Evening News). Here's the latest news from Woodward Avenue Elementary.

Vancouver Sun, November 16, 2006
Good news from British Columbia. As a rule, we focus on news from the United States. But this story from north of the border could not be ignored. Note: this article has also appeared in The Province and The Toronto Star.

Boston Globe, October 29, 2006.
All-boys education. Lorraine Garnett Ward was a dean at Wellesley College for twenty years. For the past six years, she has been chair of the English department at an all-boys school. Now taking a leave of absence in order to battle breast cancer, Ms. Ward reflects on all-boys education.

US News & World Report, October 27, 2006
Are single-sex classes legal? This story illustrates some of the opportunities lost by the four-year delay in the release of the new regulations.

USA Today, August 17, 2006:
USA Today endorses single-sex public education . In this editorial, USA Today highlights the success of Woodward Avenue Elementary School in DeLand, Florida. The USA Today editorial emphasizes that single-sex education can benefit both girls and boys, provided that teachers have appropriate training. We agree!

New York Times, Sunday June 11 2006: The Gender Gap at School. New York Times columnist David Brooks has some interesting things to say about the growing gender gapa in academic performance. He suggests that perhaps a more differentiated curriculum might help to engage both girls and boys in reading.

Associated Press, June 9 2006: Single-sex classrooms gaining in popularity. This Associated Press report -- describing the growing popularity of single-sex classrooms in public schools -- appeared in more than fifty newspapers around the United States. The article describes the success of one such program at Martin Luther King Middle School in Atlanta, then goes on to describe other success stories from Florida and from South Carolina.

NEA Today, April 2006: Single-sex classrooms allow elementary school boys to succeed. What's the first thing most children hear in elementary school? "Now children, I need you all to SIT STILL and BE QUIET." Guess what. For some 5- and 6-year-old boys, sitting still and being quiet for hours on end is simply not developmentally appropriate. But in our era of "academic kindergarten", with its unrelenting focus on literacy and numeracy -- a boy who can't sit still and be quiet may be doomed to failure.
Not in this classroom, though. Jeff Ferguson -- a public school teacher in a low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood -- has accomplished great things in his all-boys classroom, where sitting is optional.
One note about this article: The NEA is on record OPPOSING single-sex public education. That fact makes it even more remarkable that the NEA's major house publication printed this extraordinary endorsement of single-sex public education.
Another note: Jeff Ferguson, the teacher featured in this article, was a featured speaker at our 2005 conference.

Orlando Sentinel, September 30, 2005: Single-sex classrooms produce extraordinary gains -- at no extra cost. At this public school in Deland, Florida (about halfway between Orlando and Daytona Beach), 4th-graders were assigned either to coed classrooms or single-sex classrooms. All the classrooms had the same class size (about 24 students) and the same curriculum. In the coed classrooms, 59% of the girls scored proficient on the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) compared with just 37% of the boys. But in the all-boys classrooms, 86% of the boys scored proficient. Some of those boys had previously been labeled as learning-disabled. In the all-girls classroom, 75% of the girls scored proficient. The single-sex format eliminated the gender gap and improved the performance of BOTH girls AND boys.

Philadelphia Inquirer, August 14, 2005: High school reworked as boys-only. The Philadelphia public school district is reinventing several of its schools in the single-sex format. Fitzsimons Middle School will become an all-boys school serving grades 6 through 12. Rhodes Middle School likewise is becoming an all-girls school serving grades 6 through 12. Three other Philadelphia public schools (two elementary, one middle) are also adopting the single-sex format.

Arkansas Democrat Gazette, August 14, 2005: School forges new path. In a suburb of Little Rock, the local public school district is reinventing middle school: the district now has two buildings, one middle school for boys, and one middle school for girls. The buildings are on the same campus, so that the girls and boys can take electives such as physical education together. All core classes are gender-separate. This article also describes the full-day professional development session which NASSPE director Dr. Leonard Sax led for the middle school teachers just before the new school(s) opened in August, 2005.

Dayton Daily News, July 28, 2005: Expert says girls and boys see differently. Dayton Public Schools (Dayton, Ohio) invited NASSPE director Dr. Leonard Sax to come to Dayton to train teachers in best practices for single-sex classrooms, in preparation for that district opening an all-girls school in August 2005 and an all-boys school in August 2006. These schools will be neighborhood public schools, not charter schools.

Education Week, March 2, 2005: The Promise and the Peril of Single-Sex PUBLIC Education: NASSPE Director Leonard Sax observes that it's not sufficient just to put all the girls in one classroom and all the boys in another. " Putting a teacher in a single-sex classroom for which she is not suited by temperament or training may be a recipe for failure," he writes. The key to success in single-sex education is appropriate professional development.

Washington Post, January 8, 2005: “Maryland school segregates to boost learning”: This article about single-gender classes in a public school in suburban Maryland has an interesting twist: one of the teachers for the all-boys classes is an ardent feminist who initially opposed the idea. But her experience leading an all-boys classroom changed her mind. Here’s the link .

Palm Beach Post, January 2, 2005: “Hands up, mischief down: single-sex classes flourish” : this front-page article documents the great success of single-gender classrooms in a public school in Boynton Beach: better academic performance, fewer discipline referrals. Here’s the link.

San Diego Union-Tribune, December 20, 2004: “Benefits, drawbacks seen in gender-separate classes”: Despite the wishy-washy headline, this front-page article documents the great success of single-gender classrooms in a local public high school, particularly for Latino/Latina students. Here’s the link.

Jackson Clarion-Ledger, November 29, 2004: “Same-sex classes showing promise”: Good results from a public school in Flowood (a suburb of Jackson, Mississippi). Dr. Sax met with teachers at this public school last summer, just before they launched their single-gender classrooms. They’re off to a great start, as this article documents, with all the usual benefits: girls who are more confident, boys who enjoy reading more. Here’s the link.

WHAS-11 (Louisville, Kentucky), November 12, 2004: “Same sex classes working at area schools”: Good news from single-gender public schools in Louisville and environs: academic achievement has improved, dramatically in some cases, and discipline referrals are way down. Here’s the link.

Single-sex schools growing in popularity
This Associated Press article tells about the new girls' public high school which opened in August 2004 Dallas, Texas -- and also gives some information about the growing popularity of single-sex public education nationwide. You can read it at this link.

New single-sex program at Mississippi public elementary school
Flowood Elementary School (in Rankin County, northeast of Jackson, Mississippi) began offering single-sex classes in 2004-2005. You can read more about the program at this link.