Remember those experimental sex-segregated K-12 programs the New York Times Magazine profiled in March? You know, the ones that rely upon gender stereotypes to educate young public school students? Yesterday the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education and the Breckenridge County School District, accusing them of violating the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause, Title IX, and other equity laws.
The Kentucky district's middle school randomly assigned students to sex segregated classes in subjects such as math, only later telling parents they could opt their kids out of the girls or boys-only classrooms. What's even more disturbing is how different the classes are: The most advanced math course offered is open only to girls, meaning that students who prefer co-education can't leave that classroom without relegating themselves to a lower level of instruction. High-achieving boys are not allowed to enroll at all in the highest-level math class.
Seems like an open and shut case.
In related news, a new study of 40 years of educational achievement data from elementary school through college found that the so-called "crisis" in boys' education is a myth. The study, for the first time, correlated students' gender with their class and race, concluding that the achievement gap is primarily a problem of poverty. Boys continue to do better than girls in math, and girls continue to do better in reading, although those sex-based disparities are widest among white children.
--Dana Goldstein