Forget about single-sex classrooms, says Israeli researcher Analia Schlosser. Even a small majority of girls in a classroom dramatically increases the learning achievement for both boys AND girls -- even more so than in boys-only and girls-only classes.
OK, well that's interesting, especially in light of some schools creating special classes for just one gender in order to boost learning and improve behavior at school. Maybe mixing it up isn't a cause for poor performance.
Here's what Schlosser concluded after studying a large sample of American elementary, middle and high school classes: in classes with more than 55 percent of girls resulted in better exam results and less violent outbursts overall.
She guess that the better grades and behavior have to do with girls' positive influence on the classroom environment, which, as the mother of two girls, makes me cringe a little. Do I want my girls have to go around nurturing the world just to get some learning done?
But Schlosser's study also shows that the girls' grades improve too in the mixed-gender classes (where the girls are a majority). So, how bad could that be? Plus, I've never liked the idea of segregating classes with such broad strokes as gender (or income or race or even rigid age guidelines). According to this report, everybody could win.
Photo: SPTimes.com
