Question: How and why has single-sex education been implemented and evolved in Hartford over the last fifteen years?
Relevance: Single-sex education is a cultural phenomenon, where gender differences are utilized to benefit students, rather than marginalize or ostracize individuals. Single-sex education allows students to grow in an academic environment surrounded only by those of the same sex, eliminating many gendered conflicts that arise in developing adolescents. Single-sex education takes male and female complications and interactions, physically, mentally, and emotionally, out of the academic setting, shifting those relations to an out of school setting. This allows academics to take precedent over such issues.
Research Strategy: My main focus when searching for sources was variety. I wanted to make sure that I was drawing from a multitude of different types of sources. Therefore, I utilized Google, Google scholar, JSTOR, The Connecticut Government webpage, cga.ct.gov, and the Trinity College Library to find sources. In order to determine how single-sex education has evolved over the past 15 years, The Hartford Courant articles will show the differing opinions of the people of Hartford and the government pertaining to funding and experimenting with the method. I will also use the yearly reports published by the Connecticut Public School system on single-sex education, which tracks statistics, goals and mission statements of their efforts. I located this text through the Connecticut State Education Research Center online. I needed to make sure that my sources accurately depict how single-sex education has changed over time, so I next looked for sources that ranged back from 1998. I was able to find an article from The Hartford Courant dating back to 1998. This article reflects on the debate of Single-sex education, and women who were defending its ideologies. Based on the viewpoint of single-sex education from Hartford’s residents in 1998, I can track how the attitudes have changed and shifted over time. I also located an Education Policy book published each year, wherein the benefits and fallbacks of single-sex education are investigated.
Sources:
The Advantages Of Single-Sex Education
The Hartford Courant, RUSSELL BLAIR, August 13, 2010
No Endorsement Of Single-Sex Schools Given
The Hartford Courant, August 23, 2010
Women Defend Single-sex Education
The Hartford Courant, By ROBERT A. FRAHM, March 23, 1998
EDUCATION; Boys Will Be Boys? Then Teach Them Separately, Perhaps
The Hartford Courant, By THOMAS KAPLAN, Published: March 23, 2008
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E02E2D91F30F930A15750C0A96E9C8B63
Reform or Retrenchment: Single Sex Education and the Construction of Race and Gender, Verna L. Williams , University of Cincinnati College of Law
Single-Sex Education, The Connecticut Context, Technical Report, 2013
http://ctserc.org/docs/Single-Sex%20Education%20report%20SERC%202013.pdf
OLR Research Report, CT SINGLE-SEX EDUCATION PROGRAMS, December 5, 2006, Soncia Coleman, Associate Legislative Analyst
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2006/rpt/2006-R-0714.htm
Class Divide: Single-Sex Schoolrooms Take Off, Some Wary Of Growing Trend, But Advocates’ Fervor Is Catching, JIM FARRELL, June 12, 2007
http://www.hartfordinfo.org/issues/documents/Education/htfd_courant_061207.asp
Brookings Papers on Education Policy, Rosemary C. Salomone, Cornelius Riordan and Janice Weinman, 1999, Published by: Brookings Institution Press, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20067210
As we’ll discuss when we meet, this proposal on single-sex education has rich potential but needs a (possibly) revised scope and broader sources to tell a meaningful story about change over time. Your current RQ asks: “How and why has single-sex education been implemented and evolved in Hartford over the last fifteen years?” First, clarify whether or not you mean “single-sex public education” (which raises more interesting legal and policy questions). Second, while I’m pleasantly surprised by the number of Hartford-specific sources you did locate, it’s still not clear to me whether there’s a sufficient number to justify a focus on one school district. Consider either (a) Connecticut, or (b) Hartford as one case in a national trend. Third, it’s also unclear to me why you selected the “15 year” marker, as 2006 seems to be the key policy shift at the federal level. Overall, an alternative frame for a rich RQ on this topic might be something more like “How and why has single-sex public education evolved in Hartford, in comparison to the nation, since the 1998 AAUW report and the 2006 shift in federal guidelines?”
As we discussed, using some national sources may help to write a more meaningful story about what’s happening in one location. In addition to the CT sources above, plus the other Salomone et al sources and AAUW sources, consider looking at EdWeek.org or some scholarly databases (perhaps Ed Full Text), especially when you have key dates/reports to see how different places are reacting.
One more Hartford source that I used to include in Ed 200:
Robert Frahm and Rachel Gottlieb, “Merits of Single-Sex Classes Debated,” Hartford Courant, March 5, 2004.
Small but important point: do you have a citation style you prefer? If so, start using it.