MPS Pushing One-Sex Schools; Panel Likely to Urge One All-Boys, One All-Girls, for the Fall
By ALAN J. BORSUK
An all-boys schools and an all-girls school could open as part of the Milwaukee Public Schools system by September.
In documents made available in advance of a School Board committee meeting Tuesday, MPS administrators said, “MPS strongly believes that parents should be given the opportunity to choose single-sex schools for their children if they believe that these schools will help their children.”
Specific schools are not spelled out in the resolution to be considered Tuesday – in fact, it doesn’t pinpoint whether the focus should be on high schools, middle schools or even elementary grades.
But the MPS administration, led by Superintendent William Andrekopoulos, recommended giving the idea a green light and allowing administrators to seek proposals for two single-sex schools, with the goal of opening them for the coming school year. That plan is expected to be recommended by the board’s Innovation and School Reform Committee on Tuesday and be approved by the full board Jan. 25.
Creating single-sex schools and classes remains controversial, but the idea has gained momentum and popularity around the nation in recent years.
The U.S. Department of Education issued regulations in the fall that open the door to offering single-sex classes and schools, and a new Wisconsin law, passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jim Doyle last year, says single-sex education is basically OK, as long as students of both sexes have access to equal-quality programs.
The National Association for Single Sex Public Education lists three schools in the Milwaukee suburbs that now offer single-sex classes in some subjects: John Long Middle School in Grafton, Arrowhead High School in Merton and Kennedy Middle School in Germantown.
Private schools in the Milwaukee area that separate boys and girls include Divine Savior Holy Angels and St. Joan Antida high schools, both of which are all-girls, and Marquette University High School, which is all-boys.
And there are actually two small programs in MPS now that have all-girl enrollments, an alternative high school called Milwaukee Spectrum, which focuses on high school age girls labeled “at risk,” and the Lady Pitts School Age Parent Center, which focuses on students who are pregnant or have children. Spectrum had 113 students and Lady Pitts had 138 in the official attendance count in September.
In its report to the board, MPS administrators pointed to single- sex private schools and said, “The administration believes that single-sex education should not be available only to those who can afford private schools, but that parents who send their children to public schools should also have the choice to send their children to single-sex schools.”
Enrollment in single-sex schools would be entirely voluntary, the administration said.
Jeff Spence, the board member who sponsored the resolution, said Sunday that he thinks it is the will of the community as a whole to offer single-sex options for students.
He said that achievement is generally low among teenage males in the city, while some experts think some boys focus more on academics when they don’t have girls around. The same can be true of girls, he suggested.
“You need to look at every opportunity to give them a chance for success,” he said. “If a change in school environment that will allow them to better focus on academics and get a chance to succeed academically is out there, I think it’s incumbent upon the board to really investigate and create programs that will drive at that success.”
Other supporters of single-sex education say girls benefit from not having boys around because that leads to girls taking leadership roles and reduces their hesitation to show they have abilities in areas such as math and science.
Critics of single-sex education, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have argued that single-sex classes and schools remain a form of discrimination that inherently leads to different- quality education for boys and girls, and that claims of educational benefit are not supported by the overall research on the subject
Spence said he did not know if it is feasible to open two single- sex schools by September.
“I don’t want this rushed, though, and not have proper planning to create a program that would be of value,” he said. “If it takes another year, so be it.”
A SCHOOL OF ONE’S OWN
— A plan to start two single-sex schools in MPS is expected to be recommended by a School Board panel Tuesday and be approved by the full board Jan. 25.
— Creating single-sex schools and classes remains controversial, but the idea has gained momentum and popularity in recent years.
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