Case in Point: Latina Students in Single Gender Classes

Over the last two decades, there has been a great deal of interest in gender differences in academic achievement and overall school success among boys and girls. Recently, however, the focus has shifted to distinctions between groups of girls or “intra-gender differences” [1]. Of all the groups of school-aged girls, Latina students have the lowest self esteem and self-perception scores for any group of girls including African American, Asian, and White girls [2]. In addition, Latinas have lower graduation rates than girls from other racial or ethnic groups and higher pregnancy rates than White and African American girls  [2, 3]. These alarming rates point to a serious problem that requires a high impact solution.

One potential solution is the implementation of single gender classrooms designed to meet the unique developmental and academic needs of girls and boys. To better understand how single-gender classrooms may benefit Latina students, I surveyed and interviewed Latinas who were attending single gender and coeducational classes in a public coeducational high school. The high school is located in an urban center in northern California and had recently implemented single gender classrooms for male and female students deemed at risk for school failure.

Researcher: What kinds of things would boys do that were distracting?

Latina Single-Gender Class Student: They’ll talk about us, pass notes, sometimes make you feel uncomfortable, say little stupid slurs, sexual, or something negative, or put you down saying you’re dumb….... I just felt I should keep quiet, just so nobody would pass judgment on me. But in here we’re all the same sex, we all understand what we’re going through. I can express my feelings, nobody’s shy, everybody’s friends, so I like it, it’s better.