Federal

Rules on Single-Sex Education Allow Room to Experiment

By Michelle R. Davis — March 10, 2004 | Corrected: March 24, 2004 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Corrected: We misspelled the name of the executive director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education. His correct name is Leonard Sax.

Public schools once blocked from teaching boys and girls separately would find it easier to embrace single-sex classes and schools under new federal regulations issued last week.

The long-awaited regulations from the U.S. Department of Education would relax a previously strict interpretation of the main federal law guaranteeing sex equity in education. The proposed rules were met with consternation by some civil rights groups and elation by many educators, some of whom had already adopted single-sex educational practices in their schools.

“The interest is in bringing a greater diversity to the array of educational options provided for parents,” Brian W. Jones, the Education Department’s general counsel, said in announcing the new rules on March 2. Single sex education may also help schools meet particular educational needs of students, he said.

The proposed regulations, which still await a 45-day comment period, would amend Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination in education programs that receive federal funds.

Under the new rules, elementary and secondary schools could offer voluntary single-sex classes within a coeducational school as long as both sexes were treated fairly and equally, Mr. Jones said.

Schools will not have to offer single- sex options for both boys and girls. For example, a district opening an all- girls school would not have to open an all-boys school. But there would have to be an equal educational opportunity for boys at a coed school within the district.

‘Evenhandedness’

“Their burden is to try to determine how a substantially equal benefit is going to be provided for boys,” Mr. Jones said of public school districts. “Evenhandedness is the principle.”

The proposal is a significant break from past interpretations of the law by the department and the courts that have held that, except in classes such as physical and sex education, girls and boys must be educated together.

Education Department officials vowed to scrutinize single-sex classes and schools to make sure no one’s civil rights were violated.

“We have heard from many people who are concerned that we continue to vigorously enforce” Title IX, said Kenneth Marcus, who is overseeing the office for civil rights. “We have heard them, and we agree.”

Mr. Marcus said the OCR would be watching programs closely, checking admissions criteria, educational benefits, and the quality of staff, facilities, and resources available to both male and female students. Ensuring that boys and girls are treated equally will be a “continuing and vital concern,” he said.

Prompted by Law

But some groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, say such assurances don’t placate them.

“Without a doubt, discrimination by gender continues,” said LaShawn Y. Warren, the legislative counsel for the ACLU’s Washington office. Ms. Warren worries that one gender may get fewer opportunities, substandard equipment or less qualified teachers, as has sometimes been the case with single-sex experiments.

Leslie T. Annexstein, the director of the legal-advocacy fund at the Washington-based American Association of University Women, said she’s troubled that department officials admit that research into single-gender education is “incomplete” but want to press forward with single- sex approaches. Studies of single-gender education have not conclusively determined whether it is beneficial, she said. “The scientific evidence isn’t there yet,” she said. “It seems they’re ahead of themselves.”

The move toward allowing public schools the flexibility to start single-sex programs stems from the No Child Left Behind Act. A provision in the 2-year-old law called for the U.S. secretary of education to issue new guidelines on single- sex programs.

The goal, according to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Texas Republican who wrote the amendment, was to give public school students “the same options as their private school contemporaries,” she said in a statement last week.

In the past year since Education Department officials announced their intention to relax restrictions, and even before then, some principals and school districts had experimented with single-sex education on their own with success.

Leonard Sacks, the executive director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, based in Poolesville, Md., said about 30 public schools offered some form of single-sex education two years ago. Today, the number is 88.

“No one here is trying to repeal Title IX,” Mr. Sacks said. “We do not want to go back to the bad old days when girls had to take home ec, and boys had to take woodworking.”

Events

Teaching Profession K-12 Essentials Forum New Insights Into the Teaching Profession
Join this free virtual event to get exclusive insights from Education Week's State of Teaching project.
Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and K-12 education jubs at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Mathematics K-12 Essentials Forum Helping Students Succeed in Math

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Federal Trump Admin. Adds Project 2025 Author to Education Department Staff
The appointment comes as Trump has already begun to embrace plans outlined in the controversial 900-page conservative policy agenda.
4 min read
A copy of Project 2025 is held during the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago.
A copy of Project 2025 is held during the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. The Trump administration has added the author of the conservative policy document's chapter on education to the U.S. Department of Education's staff.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Federal Trump Admin. Pauses Ed. Dept. Layoffs After Judge's Order
The U.S. Department of Education is slowly complying with a federal court order to reinstate staff.
3 min read
Phil Rosenfelt, center, an attorney with the Office of the General Counsel at the Department of Education, is greeted by supporters after retrieving personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025.
Phil Rosenfelt, center, an attorney with the office of general counsel at the U.S. Department of Education, is greeted by supporters after retrieving personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025, the last day of work for hundreds of agency employees. The Trump administration has had to bump back the day it planned to stop paying laid-off staff.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Federal Tutoring, After-School, and Other Student Services at Risk as Trump Cuts AmeriCorps
Deep cuts to programs across the federal government have left students without programming they'd come to count on.
8 min read
Members of the City Year program work at Isaac Newton Middle School for Math and Science in East Harlem during the MLK Day of Service on Jan. 20, 2025, in New York City.
Members of the City Year program work at Isaac Newton Middle School for Math and Science in East Harlem during the MLK Day of Service on Jan. 20, 2025, in New York City. City Year places AmeriCorps volunteers in underserved schools, but cuts to the federal service agency have led City Year to scale back some of its AmeriCorps volunteer-powered programs.
Courtesy of City Year New York
Federal Republicans Press Top Ed. Dept. Nominees to Commit to Trump's Agenda
Penny Schwinn and Kimberly Richey appeared before lawmakers for leadership in the department.
6 min read
Deputy Secretary of Education nominee Penny Schwinn, left, and Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights nominee Kimberly Richey prior to testifying before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee about their nominations for the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., on June 5, 2025.
Penny Schwinn, left, and Kimberly Richey speak prior to testifying before the U.S. Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee in Washington on June 5, 2025. Schwinn is President Donald Trump's nominee to serve as deputy secretary in the U.S. Department of Education. Richey is Trump's nominee to lead the department's office for civil rights.
Jason Andrew for Education Week