Cheyenne draws the line on gender

Monday, Oct. 10, 2005 | 8:47 a.m.

With Cheyenne High School failing to meet federal test standards, Principal Jeff Geihs believes he knows what will encourage student achievement this year: separating freshman and sophomore classes by gender.

It's an experiment that Geihs says will blaze a trail.

"We're going to have a lot of schools following our lead," Geihs said.

Cheyenne's experiment will be watched, as it comes during a growing debate on single-gender education in public schools.

Supporters say the proof of classroom improvement is obvious, but some national researchers argue there's little evidence that single-gender classes alone have any real impact on student achievement.

And there's a question of whether the district is violating Title IX, a 33-year-old federal law aimed at ending gender discrimination in public education.

Still, Clark County is pushing forward. It has two of an estimated 200 schools in the nation with such programs. The district's programs are designed for remedial students or for schools that are falling behind on test scores.

With just a year of data in, students in single-gender algebra classes at Cheyenne showed a slight improvement over the mixed gender classes the year before.

Geihs, though, says he doesn't need the numbers to prove it.

"I'm hearing from parents, teachers and students who see a difference," Geihs said. "I see it myself when I observe classes. There's less distractions and interruptions. Kids are more attentive to the task at hand."

Cheyenne's gender-specific classes began as a pilot study during the 2003-04 academic year. Remedial students in grades 9 and 10 were divided by gender for math and English. The results -- a half-grade improvement on average in algebra -- were enough that Cheyenne officials expanded the program last year to all English and math classes for the two grade levels.

Geihs, who took over as Cheyenne's principal in March, expanded the program at the school this year with all freshmen and sophomores divided by gender for English, algebra, geometry, biology, health and world history.

He said the classes are designed to address the school's failure to meet progress standards mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Following Cheyenne's lead, Rancho is continuing its single-gender classes for a second year. Rancho has also failed to meet the progress standards.

Last year Rancho set up separate class for boys and girls for English language learner (ELL) students struggling with reading and math.

The school also experimented with offering gender-specific classes for honors science.

"The results were terrific for our ELL kids, especially the boys," Chesto said. "They were more inquisitive and appeared to feel less self-conscious about reading aloud. In the honors classes everybody loved it and demanded that we do it again."

Last year Rancho made dramatic gains in student achievement on standardized tests, reducing the total students failing to meet English proficiency standards by nearly 20 percent and reducing the number of students not proficient in math by 17.5 percent.

While Clark County officials say they're trying the single-gender classes largely in remedial classes, it's questionable if that's enough to satisfy the federal law.

Title IX allows public schools to create single-gender classes provided special circumstances are met, said Jocelyn Samuels, vice president for education and employment at the National Women's Law Center in Washington, D.C.

Samuels said while remedial programs are acceptable under the law, the definition of "remediation" is particularly narrow.

"Dividing up entire grade levels by gender and claiming the purpose is remediation, that would be a very difficult case to argue under the law," Samuels said.

Bill Hoffman, senior counsel for the Clark County School District, said prior to Cheyenne's pilot study in 2003, he determined that the program would be lawful. He said the program was for remedial students, it was voluntary and equivalent services were being offered to the mixed-gender classes.

The federal Education Department is considering easing Title IX restrictions to allow more schools to offer single-gender classes.

Studies conducted both in the United States and other countries suggest gender-specific classes may encourage students to expand their academic horizons -- girls are more likely to pursue careers in mathematics and science while boys show increased participation in language and arts programs.

But in a 2002 report, the National Association of State Boards of Education noted most studies of single-gender schools were conducted either in private schools or overseas, and said it's wrong to assume that the positive outcomes cited in studies "would be replicated among diverse public school populations."

At Cheyenne, response last year to the classes was mixed. Some students wanted to return to "regular" classrooms, others were satisfied with an improvement in their grades.

Pam Abbott, whose daughter Tiffany is now a sophomore at Cheyenne, said she was skeptical at first. Her daughter's attitude and report cards helped ease her mind.

"I noticed a big difference in her grades compared to her brothers and sisters when they were freshmen," said Abbott, whose three older children also attended public school. "It's a big transition from middle school to high school and it seems like Tiffany's handling it better."

Tiffany said she wasn't happy at first about the divided classrooms. But her feelings changed when her English grade climbed from a C-minus at the end of eighth grade to A's and B's. She was more likely to speak up in class because she wasn't worried about "looking stupid" in front of the boys.

David Arledge, who taught five gender-specific English classes last year, said he saw student achievement rise. The one drawback: Some behavioral problems in boys classes can be magnified without girls in class.

But the benefits outweigh the minor skirmishes, Arledge said.

"I have five gender-specific classes and out of all those kids, nine are failing," said Arledge, who has taught three years in Clark County and also spent six years working in schools on an Indian reservation. "When the classes were mixed, the failing rate was three or four times as high."

Emily Richmond covers education for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-8829 or by e-mail at emily@lasvegassun.com.