Term of Award
Spring 2017
Degree Name
Doctor of Education in Curriculum Studies (Ed.D.)
Document Type and Release Option
Dissertation (restricted to Georgia Southern)
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading
Committee Chair
Marlynn Griffin
Committee Member 1
Ming Fang He
Committee Member 2
Julie Garlen
Committee Member 3
Wendy Chambers
Committee Member 3 Email
wcuster@georgiasouthern.edu
Abstract
In an attempt to improve its already excellent standardized test scores by addressing the needs of struggling students, Cardinal Forest Middle School implemented single-sex education on a limited scope and on a trial basis. Using the theoretical framework of Schwab’s four commonplaces, the academic and behavioral records of single-sex educated and co-educated students from the year prior to and year of single-sex team teaching were compared. An analysis of covariance was utilized to analyze the academic and behavioral data and to determine if there was a statistically significant difference in the single-sex classroom achievement scores versus the coeducational classroom achievement scores. These analyses showed no statistically significant differences between the groups on the achievement measures during the years of single sex education. In addition, behavioral records were analyzed to show the difference between the single-sex students and coeducational students in the sixth grade and seventh grade. The results showed the discipline referral percentage increased for the single-sex male, but the discipline referral percentage decreased for the coeducational males, single-sex females, and coeducational females. Qualitative data gathered from interviewing three of the four teachers involved in the teaching of the single-sex classes showed the teachers’ perspectives as being favorable to the single-sex classroom and to the belief that the students in the single-sex classrooms benefitted not only academically but socially as well.
Recommended Citation
Murray, H. (2017). A Comparison of Student Achievement and Behavior in Single Sex and Mixed Sex Classrooms in a Rural Georgia Middle School
Research Data and Supplementary Material
No
IRB approval
