Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Education released a 34-page guidance on single-sex education Monday, presenting a document that neither condemns nor praises the increasing popularity gender-segregated classrooms.
- The document doesn't take an official stance on whether or not boys and girls learn differently, instead stating that “evidence of general biological differences is not sufficient to allow teachers to select different teaching methods or strategies for boys and girls.”
- While the guidance leans toward neutrality when it comes to questions of biological differences between boys and girls, it does make it much more difficult for districts to constitutionally create all-girl or all-boy classrooms.
Dive Insight:
The U.S. Department of Education's guidance was released in response to a recent uptick in the number of districts electing to experiment with single-sex classrooms. According to TIME, this increase is partially influenced by the overarching "choice" movement, which relies heavily on the idea that there is currently a "crisis" in the U.S. education system.
As districts begin to separate boys and girls, the American Civil Liberties Union has become more and more concerned that sexism and stereotypes will prevail and has even pursued lawsuits based on these issues. For examples of how this may manifest, TIME pointed to a recent professional development session in Florida where educators were instructed to engage boys in "higher level discourse" and girls with more of an emotional approach.
