Debating Single-Sex Education: Separate and Equal?, 2nd Edition - Softcover

Although single-sex schools have been around for a very long time, the US Department of Education did not formally determine their legality until 2006. Since then, they have continually grown in popularity. In this revised and expanded second edition, 11 veteran educators continue the debate on both the efficacy and the value of single-sex education. Beyond the statistical data from Africa and the US, the authors offer case studies, student interviews, and well-aimed comments on the evidence of effectiveness on student achievement. Contributors consider topics from the early history of single-sex classes in the US to current findings and their implications in the final chapters; from religious, social, and cultural contexts for gender segregation to the legal questions and cases that have dogged this topic; and from a careful examination of the cognitive and developmental differences in genders to issues of bullying and category-specific behavioral problems. Spielhagen has done an admirable job of compiling an array of articulate and interesting voices. The ten surprising conclusions in chapter 14, plus the recommendations offered there, are worth the price of the book and are must reads on this topic. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, upper-division undergraduate students, and above. * CHOICE *

Debating Single Sex Education: Separate and Equal, 2nd edition, provides a balanced summary of the context, concerns, and findings about single sex education in 21st Century United States. Few school reforms have engendered as much controversy as single sex public education. This book examines the history of single-sex classes and legislation that has over time evolved to render the reform legal, even though it continues to be subject to public scrutiny and litigation. The book also provides insights into the social, religious, and cultural contexts that set the stage for the growing popularity of single-sex education over the last decade. It explains controversial brain-based research and addresses the problem of bullying in single-sex classes. Finally, the book includes findings based on research in single-sex schools across the nation. Do single-sex classes work? This book provides information that will allow the reader to make an informed decision about that question. Debating Single Sex Education: Separate and Equal, 2nd edition, strives to inform the debate and add to the discourse on this popular school reform.