
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, November 6, 1994                   TAG: 9411080028
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH, N.H.                                 LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOLS TRY SEPARATING BOYS, GIRLS IN MATH CLASS

Math teachers who would rather call on boys than girls at Portsmouth Senior High School may have to change their style soon.

The school board has ordered administrators to come up with a program to divide girls and boys. School board member Charles Vaughn requested the study because girls fared worse than boys on the math sections of standardized tests.

Portsmouth is among a growing number of schools nationwide that are considering whether to divide girls and boys as a way to get more attention for female students and boost their math scores.

John Donahue, a senior, supports single-sex classes because he has seen girls get shortchanged in his math classes. ``I've had male and female math teachers, and the math teachers kind of do ... tend to go for the males,'' he said.

The high school in Presque Isle, Maine, has separate ninth-grade math classes for girls and boys. The University of Maine has followed the girls' progress, and says they are more likely to go on to take high-level math courses.

Dick Durost, principal at Presque Isle High, said students and parents support the idea because girls aren't worried about what the boys think of them.

``When you put them in an all-girls setting, that is no longer there and their personalities take over,'' he said.

But Portsmouth junior Genevieve Ristaino said she wants her classes to stay the way they are.

``I don't think segregating boys from girls is a good idea because if you do it in math class, you're going to end up doing it in social studies, English ... just like it was years ago with segregating whites from blacks,'' she said. ``In my math class, I think girls definitely dominate the boys.''

If the board approves the administration's plan, the same-sex classes could begin in the next school year.

Susan McGee Bailey, executive director of Wellesley College's Center for Research on Women, agreed with Genevieve.

McGee Bailey, co-author of ``How Schools Shortchange Girls,'' said boys fare better than girls on many math and science achievement tests, and high-level math and science classes tend to have more boys than girls.

``I'd like to see more schools try to do for girls and boys what is happening for girls in the most successful single-sex math classes,'' she said.

by CNB