Imagine a typical school classroom and you may conjure up images of boys and girls coexisting, learning alongside each other, raising their hands in equal numbers. However, that’s not usually the case.

According to 2010 data from NCES and the U.S. Census Bureau, from prekindergarten to senior year of high school, male students outnumber female students significantly in public school classrooms: 54 percent to 46 percent in pre-K and 51 percent to 49 percent from first grade to 12th grade.

So with the disproportionate stats in the American classroom, is it beneficial to separate the sexes from each other? Much debate has centered around this topic for years.

The Case for Single-Gender Classrooms

Jefferson Leadership Academies was in the spotlight in 1999 when it became the first public middle school in the United States to have entirely single-gender classes. Its reason? Research showed that girls did better in math and science in all-girl settings. This decision came just a few years after Failing at Fairness: How Our Schools Cheat Girls — a book that argues that gender bias prevents girls from receiving education equal to that of their male counterparts — was published by two American University professors.

Of course, single-gender education in grade schools didn’t start in 1999, as it existed in the 18th century before coeducation started to trend in the 19th century. However, it picked up steam in the late ’90s, especially when the Supreme Court made a ruling in the United States v. Virginia case involving male-only military college Virginia Military Institute. The conclusion: Single-sex classrooms were only constitutional if comparable resources were available to both genders. In 2006, the No Child Left Behind Act added a provision giving single-sex classrooms and schools the ability to exist as long as they are voluntary. From 1995 to 2006, the number of single-sex schools in the United States rose from 3 to 241.

There are many reasons why people advocate for single-gender classrooms, including less distraction (especially during teenage years when hormones rage), less “gender intensification” where coed settings reinforce stereotypes, and more instruction tailored to the unique ways boys and girls learn.

Approximately 30% of Catholic high schools in America are single-sex. See why you might consider a Catholic school, even if you’re not Catholic.

The Case Against Single-Gender Classrooms

In 2007, Jefferson Leadership Academies reversed its same-sex curriculum after issues with disappointing test scores and scheduling conflicts arose. Detractors of same-sex classrooms weren’t surprised since one of the biggest challenges to single-sex classrooms is the lack of concrete evidence that they boost achievement. As Margaret Talbot wrote in her 2012 New Yorker piece, “The evidence wasn’t very good then [the ’90s] for a gap between the genders’ learning styles so significant that it would mandate separate instruction, and it hasn’t gotten any better.”

Plus, another argument against single-gender schools is that the real world doesn’t afford a society where students can work with or interact with one gender over another. Thus, when it comes time for these students to head into the workforce, or even to college, they will face an adjustment period.

Related to college, one of the biggest reasons why single-gender classes popped up in the ’90s was to help women do better in the classroom, but recent statistics show that women attend college in larger numbers, outnumbering men by 14 percent.

In fact, girls are less likely than boys to be held back in American schools, too, so some argue that the effort put into helping girls in the classroom may be counterintuitive when the boys are the ones who aren’t doing as well.

Pros and Cons of Single-Sex Education

The Bottom Line

It may seem like a new development in education, but single-sex education is actually a throwback to curriculum systems of yesteryear, from way back before the 19th century. The factor that’s changed is simply the reason behind the implementation, which may continue to evolve as new trends and legislation emerge. It remains to be proven whether single-sex classrooms are beneficial to students.