Split up, boys and girls. And don’t forget your uniform.

Single-gender classes and student uniforms could be coming statewide to some of the state's most struggling schools, the chair of a key House education committee said Tuesday. "I do believe we’re going to try to take a stab at some language" for legislation, said Rep. David Simmons, who chairs the Committee on 21st Century Competitiveness. "Something has to be done to improve D and F schools. What we’re doing now is not enough."

Simmons' comments came after his committee heard a presentation on single-gender classes from a Volusia County principal and a presentation on school uniforms from an official in Polk County, which has had a far-reaching uniform policy for more than a decade.

Woodward Avenue Elementary is one of a handful of schools statewide (along with a couple of schools in Pinellas) that has, with parental permission, separated boys from girls in an effort to boost student achievement. Now in its third year, the experiment at Woodward has resulted in higher test scores, particularly for boys, who initially lagged far behind the girls in reading and writing.

Meanwhile, anecdotal evidence in Polk County shows uniforms have resulted in lower disciplinary rates and less gang activity. But, warned that district’s general counsel, expect a legal and public relations fight if the Legislature passes a policy with any kind of statewide scope. In Polk, more than 650 people showed up at initial hearing on uniforms - most of them opposed to the idea - and a lawsuit based on free-speech issues dragged on until 2000. (The district won.)

Simmons said more specifics on both ideas will be ready within two to three weeks.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Comments

[Vibrators]

Thank you for such an interesting post!

[FoxInSocks]

Interesting. I'm thinking that if parents are opposed, then the school districts need to find a better way to inform and educate them about the issues rather than assume that we have time and ability to research it ourselves.

Although uniforms may not be the answer to enforce the current sloppy lenient dress code, on the first day of ALL jobs you are TOLD what to wear, and terms such as "business casual", "no sandals or open toe shoes", "khaki slacks", are EXPECTED with NO EXCEPTIONS, so if anyone feels the need to let their kids develop their own individual style by showing up to school in whatever inappropriate attire they want, then that is a much bigger problem that needs to be addressed.

Single gender classrooms might sound like a great idea to educators, who are much more informed about it than parents, but it is easy to wrongly assume that the idea to "separate" the genders because they are somehow distracting each other, isn't really the intent. After reading a little about it, I understand that the idea is to change the whole classroom setting and schedule in order to motivate each group in completely different ways. Girls have different verbal and social skills than boys, and boys have way more energy and less attention than girls, and making everyone sit still in a traditional classroom isn't beneficial to either.

[Alison Terry]

I think sex education is incredibly poor in the UK and one thing which needs to happen before it can get better is for it to be made compulsory in schools. I'm running a campaign and petition to make sex education compulsory:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Sex-education/