Equity in Education Legal Database v0.1
 

Related Laws and Acts

Equal Protection Clause

Title IX


  

Vorchheimer v. School District of Philadelphia (1977)

Details:

A teenage girl sought admission to the high quality Central High School in Philadelphia, an all-male magnet program, rather than the equally high quality Girls High magnet program or one of the coeducational schools in the city. As single-sex schools were a respected educational method at the time, and there existed academic alternatives of equal quality, the school district's policy was upheld.

note: a few years later, in 1983, Central High School transferred to a coeducational admissions policy. Girls High remains an all-female institution.

 

Applications and Implications:

  • Vorchheimer was unable to show that the single-sex schools constituted gender discrimination, and so the middle-level test was not applicable and the school district did not have to show legitimate and important purpose.
  • With the decreasing respectability of single-sex schools as an educational method, the opening of new single-sex public schools has generally not been upheld. (see the Garrett decision) The maintenance of historically single-sex schools is not often challenged.

 
Imber, Michael and Tyll van Geel (2004). Education Law (3rd ed.). Mahwah, MJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, p. 235-236.
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