Boys and Girls Together, Taught Separately in Public School

The New York Times

Michael Napolitano speaks to his fifth-grade class in the Morrisania section of the Bronx like a basketball coach. Across the hall, Larita Hudson’s scolding is more like a therapist’s. They are not just two teachers with different personalities. Ms. Hudson, who is 32 and grew up near the school, has a room full of 11-year-old girls, while Mr. Napolitano, a 50-year-old former special education teacher, faces 23 boys. The single-sex classes at Public School 140, which started as an experiment last year to address sagging test scores and behavioral problems, are among at least 445 such classrooms nationwide, according to the National Association for Single-Sex Public Education. 3/20/2009