But does it work?

Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

In 2003 Silvestri Junior High School started an experiment with single-sex education, separating boys and girls in certain classes. That plan ended last year, but school officials can’t really say whether it worked.

As Emily Richmond reported in Thursday’s Las Vegas Sun, no one in the Clark County School District apparently collected any data or evaluated whether students performed any better than in regular classrooms. Kelly Bucherie, who was Silvestri’s principal when the experiment started, said she never did a formal evaluation but kept up on the initiative’s progress in conversations with the teachers involved.

School Board Vice President Carolyn Edwards said she was disappointed. “After six years you would think there would be something to show for it,” she said.

Indeed. School district officials should be ashamed for experimenting without properly tracking the program to assess whether it was beneficial. Their lack of oversight is deeply troubling.

Now, instead of having a better understanding of whether the concept holds promise, school officials are again experimenting with single-sex education. This time they are following a plan developed by Dr. Leonard Sax, a medical doctor, psychologist and one of the nation’s leading proponents of single-sex education.

School officials say they are closely monitoring schools involved in the latest experiment, which started last year. They should be. Most studies on the effect of single-sex education on student achievement have been inconclusive, and Sax’s theories and methods have attracted criticism.

The School Board should make sure there is appropriate oversight this time around.

Educational initiatives should be closely monitored so we all have a better idea of what doesn’t work — and what does work.