Second, The Brain Is Wired Differently. Emotion and Language Are Processed in The Same Area of

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My partner and I stand in strong affirmation of the Resolved: Single-gender classrooms would
improve the quality of education in American public schools.

My partner and I would like to provide the following definition:
According to Jeanette Colby of UNICEF, the quality of education can be measured by
environments that are healthy, safe, protective and gender-sensitive, and provide adequate
resources and facilities.

In order to determine the quality of education, we must look at results of single gender
classrooms compared to co-educational classrooms.

Contention 1: Biological Differences.
According to the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy, there are four main scientific
reasons why the brains of both genders work differently. First, the brain develops differently.
Researchers at Virginia Tech used electro imaging of the brain to examine brain development in
508 children. They found that areas in the female brain involved in language and fine motor
skills developed four years earlier, and in the male brain areas in geometry and spatial reasoning
mature four years earlier. For example, according to the CRC Health Group, during an
experiment in Virginia, 100 eighth graders were separated just for math and science courses.
Almost immediately, the girls began to achieve more and participated more often in class.
Second, the brain is wired differently. Emotion and language are processed in the same area of
the brain for girls, but in separate areas for boys. Third, girls have a more sensitive sense of
hearing than boys do. In fact, girls are distracted by noise at sound levels 10 times lower than
boys. And fourth, females and males respond to stress differently. By using MRI [magnetic
resonance imaging], researchers have been able to observe the physical differences between
male and female brains as they function, particularly at high level tasks like tests, and the SAT
exam, which shows how using different teaching methods designed for each sex works. In fact,
nearly every girl from 4000 schools improved in same sex classes.

Contention 2: Academic success.
According to Hyunjoon Park from the Department of Sociology at the University of
Pennsylvania, attending schools with same-sex classrooms is significantly associated with
higher average scores on Korean and English tests. [He states that the positive effects of single-sex
schools remain substantial, even after we take into account various school-level variables, such as
teacher quality, the student-teacher ratio, the proportion of students receiving lunch support, and
whether the schools are public or private.] We can also see these positive results in a study
performed by The Australian Council for Educational Research. The study was based on six
years of study of over 270,000 students, in 53 academic subjects. Their analysis demonstrated
that both boys and girls who were educated in single-sex classrooms scored on average 15 to 22
percentile ranks higher than did boys and girls in coeducational settings. In addition, researchers
at Stetson University compared the test scores of two 4
th
Grade classes at Woodward Avenue
Elementary School in Florida, one single-sex class and one coed class. After three years of the
pilot program, the researchers compared results of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test
and found that boys were over 132% more proficient, and girls were 27% more proficient, when
compared to the coeducational classroom.

Contention 3: Benefits to Minorities and At-Risk students.
According to the Center for Evaluation & Education Policy, Cornelius Riordan, associate
professor of sociology at Providence College, found that the performance of African-American
and Hispanic students in single-sex schools is stronger on all tests, scoring on average almost a
year higher than similar students in coeducational settings. [Riordan offers possible rationales to
explain the positive effects of single-sex schools, including a greater degree of order and control, a
reduction of sex bias in teacher and student interaction, a reduction of sex stereotypes in curriculum
and opportunities, and an elimination of sex differences in a school setting.] In addition, according
to the Institute for the Study of Labor, researchers of Essex University, a co-educational
University, compared the performance of students in both same-sex and co-educational classes
of the University. They found that females in all-female classes are over 7% more likely to pass
their introductory economics course, they score 8% higher on the course grade, and 10% higher
in their required courses a year after being assigned to a single-sex class than those assigned to
coed classes. In addition, the more at-risk students in the 15
th
quartile of a course were assigned
to an all-female class, which increased the score of females by over 22%. Furthermore, the
National Association for Single-Sex Public Education did research on Seattles Thurgood
Marshall Elementary School, which used to be a failing school in one of the citys poorest
neighborhoods until the school was changed to a dual academy with separate classrooms. The
students scores changed drastically; for example, on the Washington Assessment of Student
Learning, boys scores increased from the 10th percentile to the 66th. Before the change, no girls
had passed the math portion of the test, however after separation, 53% of girls received a passing
score. According to Rosemary Salamone, a professor of Law at St. Johns College, single-sex
classes place the "intellectual" above the "social."

With that being said we strongly urge a pro ballot, thank you.

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