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 Single-sex
Academies Planned
Detroit district optimistic, but resistance is likely.
Chastity Pratt, Detroit Free Press, May 12, 2005
Detroit Public
Schools wants to open two single-sex academies in the fall, and
that could restart a battle with activists who claim all-boys
and all-girls schools are discriminatory and don't work.
The district announced Tuesday that applications are being
accepted for the Detroit Academy for Young Women, which would be
located in a wing of Chadsey High School on the west side, and
the Frederick Douglass Preparatory Academy for Young Men, which
would be located in the Douglass Academy on the east side.
The all-girls academy would serve ninth- and 10th-graders in the
fall and add a grade the next two years. The boys school would
serve all high school grades in the fall.
The last time the district tried for single-sex schools was in
1991, when officials wanted to open the country's first public
all-male academies. The American Civil Liberties Union and the
National Organization for Women, representing a parent, sued and
won in U.S. District Court. The district didn't appeal, citing
the legal costs, and the schools -- Marcus Garvey, Paul Robeson
and Malcolm X academies -- ended up coed.
"We've been through this before," said Kary Moss, executive
director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan,
adding that the organization likely will get involved again.
She said the ACLU probably would first send a letter to the
district expressing its concerns that there is no evidence
single-sex schools perform better and that such settings
reinforce stereotypes.
"We all want our children to have a better education, and this
seems like an easy solution without spending money," she said.
School officials maintain that as long as girls and boys both
have a single-sex school available, the district should be able
to avert another lawsuit.
"Our research suggests that we can legally offer a single-gender
academic program as long as we offer a comparable one to the
other gender," said Kenneth Coleman, spokesman for the district.
The district maintains that girls and boys who attend single-sex
high schools are more likely to excel in math and science. Plans
call for smaller classes and rigorous courses at the new
single-sex academies.
"In effect, the Detroit Public Schools will be giving these
children educational opportunities that compare favorably with
top private schools," said Kenneth Burnley, chief executive
officer of the school district.
Research is mixed on whether single-sex schools work.
Advocates say girls thrive when separated from boys and that
such schools are effective remedies for high dropout rates and
low academic achievement among boys, according to a policy
report from the National Association of State Boards of
Education.
The report also says opponents believe efforts to implement
single-sex schools detract from the goal of improving schools
overall and that separating boys and girls can lead to more, not
less, sex bias.
The number of single-sex schools has grown in recent years
because a change in federal education law gives school districts
more leeway in creating them.
The National Association for Single Sex Public Education lists
34 single-sex public schools that operated in the United States
in 2004. Many are charter schools, but some of them were created
by public school districts, including two elementary schools in
Toledo Public Schools and several in the New York City
Department of Education.
Douglass is an alternative school that will be reconfigured to
serve as a college preparatory program, Coleman said.
Chadsey High, one of the city's most culturally diverse schools,
is one of 34 schools that will close for good in the fall to
help dig the district out of its $200-million budget crisis. The
school was targeted for closure because its enrollment of about
900 students was too low. The girls school would be located at
Chadsey temporarily, until a permanent site is identified,
Coleman said.
Franco Iaderosa, a teacher at Chadsey, said he didn't understand
why the district would send Chadsey students to other schools
only to put a few hundred students in one wing of the school.
The opening of the girls academy gives Chadsey High supporters a
little hope that the district may keep Chadsey open at least
while the girls school is there.
"This academy is the most positive thing that has happened,"
Iaderosa said. "Having the girls here would buy us time" to
enroll more students.
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