These are the references that I used regarding Single-Sex Education. Hope this helps!

Blum, Kimberly Dawn. Gender Differences in Asynchronous Learning in Higher Education: Learning Styles, Participation Barriers and Communication Patterns. May 1999. http://eec.edc.org/cwis_docs/NEWS_ARTICLES_JOURNALS/gender%20differences%20in%20asynchronous%20learning.htm.

Campbell, Hank. Are Single-Sexed Schools Better For Education? 26 September 2011. http://www.science20.com/science_20/are_singlesex_schools_better_education-82955. 26 March 2012.

Cook, Gareth. The Single-Sex School Myth. 25 September 2011. http://articles.boston.com/2011-09-25/bostonglobe/30201500_1_brain-scan-boys-and-girls-neuroscience. 26 March 2012.

Halpern, Diane F., Eliot, Lise, S. Bigler, Rebecca, Fabes, Richard A., Hanish, Laura D., Hyde, Janet, Liben, Lynn S., Martin, Carol Lynn. The Pseudoscience of Single-Sex Schooling. 3 September 2011. http://womenstudies.wisc.edu/documents/ScienceSingle-sex09-23-11.pdf.

"How Schools Shortchange Girls." 1992. http://www.aauw.org/learn/research/upload/hssg.pdf.

Lewin, Tamar. Single-Sex Education Is Assailed in Report. 22 September 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/education/23single.html. 2012 March 15.

Lloyd, Jennifer R. Expert says single-gender schools can promote learning. 7 November 2010. 25 March 2012. .

Maschka, Kristin. Single-Sex Schools and Gender Stereotypes. 2011 10 October. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristin-maschka/single-sex-schools_b_998672.html. 26 March 2012.

Sadker, D. M., Sadker, M., Zittleman, K. R., & Sadker, M. "Still failing at fairness: How gender bias cheats girls and boys in school and what we can do about it." New York: Scribner, 2009. 253-274.

I think the way the teacher grades a paper affects the students writing performance. I dislike writing so much and I am really bad at grammar, so I never tried writing blogs or any writing for fun unless I am told to do so in a class. With that in mind, I never get a chance to practice in this area. In high school, I had a couple English teachers that required us to write research papers every year. On top of that, they grade it really hard. If it was not for their hard grading, I would not be able to strive and learn how to write properly. I tried hard to learn the basics of grammar. I might not be as good as a writer today, but my writing capabilities definitely became a lot better because of how my teachers paid attention to the papers that they were grading.

The author of this book pointed out many historical events that are being sugar-coated in our history books. Most of it consist of racial issues and this chapter specifically addresses that. We thought this article had a good connection because it pointed out racial disparities in a school setting. Studies in 2009-2010 school year says, "one in five African-American boys - and one in 10 African-American girls - was suspended from school during the study period'. Environmental influence could be a factor of these results but because of historical issues, we cannot neglect that some people are being biased.

I don't think including special needs in class is that debatable as it was before. Schools now offer accommodations for disabled students. They also have special programs that meet their needs. The big question is that whether or not the schools have the right accommodations and programs for the children or is there a balance of this program throughout all schools. In the article, Reiser mentioned that some special schools are used ten more times compared to the other area. There is an imbalance of application of these programs. Some schools may be aware that they are able to apply special education but they have not acted upon it.

It seems like Finish school system has an equal balance between students and teachers performances. Although they seek to help their students and assist them with their educational needs, they also make sure that the teachers are continually learning and training. On top of being a masters graduate in order to teach, they also have groups of teachers visiting and observing each others work. They even have professional development once a week. I cannot speak for all teachers because I am not one, but I don't think this kind of training and teaching improvement does not happen in the U.S. most of the time. U.S. education seems to focus more on being able to pass standardized exams and training children and we neglect to look at the teachers' performance as well.