South Carolina charter school makes compelling argument for single-sex classrooms

Might boys and girls learn better when they’re taught separately?

That’s the method used at Langston Charter Middle School in Greenville, South Carolina, which has the science – and results – to back it up.

David Wooten, longtime principal of Langston, explained how his school reimagined classroom teaching based on modern neurological findings. 

“A 24-year study of 387 adolescents published in 2007, the largest longitudinal pediatric neuroimaging study at the time, found sharp contrasts in the development of the cerebral cortex in adolescent boys and girls,” he wrote in an opinion piece. 

“Researchers later determined that girls reach the midway point in overall brain development approximately four years before boys do.”  

Because the cerebral cortex develops differently according to gender, the sexes end up with different strengths.  

According to WebMD, female brains are more devoted to verbal functions, which affect vocabulary and writing. 

In contrast, boys’ brains put more emphasis on mechanical and spatial functions. Spatial intelligence helps with skills like interpreting graphs or navigating maps. 

To accommodate these differences, Langston Charter not only employs segregated classrooms but also tailored teaching methods. 

“Generally speaking, girls enjoy cooperative work and seeing the larger picture before they get into granular details, and boys like to take steps one-at-a-time before they’re able to see the big picture,” Wooten wrote. “Boys also move a lot and need smaller bits of instruction at a time.”  

The results speak for themselves.  

Nine in 10 Langston students (88%) are proficient in reading and 8 in 10 (81%) in math. And Wooten says the proficiency rates have almost no variance between boys and girls.  

However, in traditional public schools, the results are very different. 

According to the 2024 Nation’s Report Card, a mere 24% of South Carolina’s 8th graders are proficient in math and 26% in reading. 

Nationwide, evidence also shows many boys struggle in traditional learning environments, which are more tailored toward feminine temperaments and development. 

Research suggests male students are often graded more harshly and face higher rates of suspension and expulsion. They are less likely to graduate high school than girls. 

Over 70% of undergraduate students in the U.S. are female, and men earn fewer college degrees of all types than women. 

Boys are also more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with a learning disability such as ADHD or dyslexia.

So while it may not please civil rights activists, teaching boys and girls in separate classrooms with different methods makes a lot of sense. 

No wonder then that Langston Charter was named one of the U.S. Department of Education’s National Blue Ribbon Schools in 2024.  

“Our 2024 National Blue Ribbon shows both that our model works well and that school choice can help students and families succeed outside traditional schools,” Wooten concluded.