The Girl Factor: How Single-Sex Learning Environments Affect African American Girls' Discipline Referral Rate

Author(s)

Devonne LampkinFollow

Date

1-2017

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Chair

Michelle Barthlow

Keywords

African American Girls Discipline, Discipline Referrals, Disportionalities in Discipline, Middle School Girls Discipline, School Discipline

Disciplines

Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education | Curriculum and Social Inquiry | Education | Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Educational Methods | Educational Psychology

Recommended Citation

Lampkin, Devonne, "The Girl Factor: How Single-Sex Learning Environments Affect African American Girls' Discipline Referral Rate" (2017). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 1345.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/1345

Abstract

The mission of the single-sex education is to provide learning environments that will bring out the best in each student and will provide opportunities for success that may not be available in co-educational settings. Several explanations have been suggested for differences between single-sex and coeducational settings in educational processes and in student outcomes. Schools that implement single-sex schools do so with the hope of decreasing the social pressures and distractions that will lead to a decrease in office discipline referrals which unenviably lead to suspensions. The purpose of this ex-post facto casual comparative study examines the impact single-sex schools have on the office discipline referral rates of African American girls collected from two middle schools in an urban district in northeast Florida, one a single-sex middle school (n=212) and a co-educational setting (n=239). Chi-square test were conducted to examine an association in office discipline referrals by school type. The results demonstrated that there is a significant association between school setting (single-sex and co-educational) and the frequency of level of offenses in office discipline referrals. This study also seeks to realize the perceptions of the African American girls from the same single-sex and co-educational middle school using the Secondary Classroom Climate Assessment Instrument - Student survey. Independent t tests demonstrated that they were no significant differences between single-sex and co-educational school settings. This discussion provides school districts additional research to implement single sex-schools to effort to improve the excess discipline referrals in African American girls.