From the Sept. 30, 1996 Daily Report Card:
-> *7   ALL-GIRLS SCHOOL:  AN EXPERIMENT IN EAST HARLEM
->    East Harlem's Young Women's Leadership School is America's
-> "latest and boldest gamble on same-sex public education," writes the
-> WASH POST (Sanchez, 9/25).  The school, located on three
-> floors in a former office building, opened its doors over the
-> "furious objections" of some feminist and civil liberty groups, notes
-> the paper.
->    "Regardless of how good their educational intentions are,
-> public school cannot segregate by gender or by race," said Norman
-> Siegel, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
-> "The focus should be on improving integrated public schools.  But
-> what they're trying to do is turn the clock back."  Siegel's
-> group has filed a formal complaint with the U.S. DoEd protesting the
-> single-sex focus of the school.  Other criticism waged
-> against the school includes: it "fosters a stereotype that young boys
-> are an intrinsically bad influence on girls; it is
-> "demeaning" to assume girls must be taught in classes without
-> boys in order to meet their academic potential; it overlooks the
-> fundamental problem with traditional public schools -- "poorly
-> trained teachers, or poorly supervised boys," writes the paper.   The
-> POST explains that years ago a cadre of single-sex
-> public schools flourished.  However, most became coed after the
-> nation's civil rights movement.  Advocates of single-sex schools
-> point to the academic success of students attending private, all-
-> girls schools as incentive to experiment again with single-sex
-> public education.  "This is an old idea whose time has come
-> again," said Ann Tisch, a founder of the Young Women's Leadership
-> School.  "So many studies say things start to unravel
-> academically for many girls -- and boys -- once they reach junior
-> high.  We're not trying to pamper any of these girls.  We just
-> want to address some of the problems they have in other schools."
-> Girls at the Leadership school attend classes with less than
-> 15 students.  They sit around small tables, "because research
-> shows that girls prefer to learn by cooperating -- not competing --
-> with each other," reports the paper.  The POST also observes that the
-> atmosphere is relaxed and that teacher lectures are more like
-> conversations.  The girls wear uniforms and few males are
-> visible at the school.  Preference for enrollment was given to
-> girls from disadvantaged families who demonstrated strong
-> academic ability.
->    New York U's Diane Ravitch's comment sums up the current
-> state of affairs over single-sex schools.  Ravitch:  "There's a lot
-> of rethinking about the whole idea of the common public
-> school and whether it's absolutely right for everyone. ...  No
-> one wants an entirely separate system, but on the other hand
-> there are real differences between boys and girls.  Schools are
-> acknowledging that more, and looking for some voluntary ways to
-> address it."
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