The effects of single-sex classrooms on student outcomes on mathematics and reading in an elementary school
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The curriculum for elementary students has undergone a significant change in the past decade. This led to an increased expectation for higher academic performance for fifth grade students in the areas of reading and mathematics. Teachers seek innovative ways to provide instructional practices within their classrooms that will aid success for all students. A Title l elementary school in a large metropolitan school system was enduring a high failure rate on the Criterion Reference Competency Test (CRCT). In an effort to decrease the failure rate on the fifth grade CRCT reading and mathematics subtests, the school's teachers and administrators implemented a single-sex class for 2 years. A quantitative data collection method compared the reading and mathematics achievement of fifth grade students in single-sex and coeducational classrooms. The results of the finding were mixed with single-sex students in single-sex student classrooms scoring significantly higher the first year of implementation, but decreasing the second year. These findings point to the fact, that more research is needed in the areas of single-sex classrooms.