Why A Girls School?

What are the advantages of single-sex education for girls?
The advantages of single-sex education fall into three categories:
(i) expanded educational opportunity, by breaking down gender stereotypes
(ii) custom-tailored learning and instruction and
(iii) greater autonomy, especially in heterosexual relationships.

The National Coalition of Girls’ Schools has recently published research showing that girls’ school graduates have an edge.
November 2009
For the first time, educators have solid evidence of girls' schools' effectiveness. This week, UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies released the results of a well-documented, national study which shows the statistically significant edge girls' school graduates have over their coed peers. This peer-reviewed research disentangles the effects of single-sex education from confounding demographic influences. At a time when education is on the national agenda, UCLA's study will make a significant contribution to the discussion.
Click here for more details of this research.

In June 2005, researchers Young and Warrington at Cambridge University released results of a four-year study of gender differences in education.
The researchers investigated hundreds of different schools, representing a wide variety of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, seeking to identify strategies which improved the performance of both girls and boys while narrowing the gender gap.
What makes this study really unique is that the researchers did not merely observe and document what they found; they then intervened, and attempted to graft those strategies onto other, less successful schools.
A total of 50 schools were involved either as “originator schools” (schools which had successfully improved student performance while narrowing the gender gap) or “partner schools” (less successful schools onto which the “Originator” strategies were grafted).
One of those strategies was single-sex education. The researchers found that the single-sex classroom format was remarkably effective at boosting boys’ performance particularly in English and foreign languages, as well as improving girls’ performance in math and science.

Here is how Dr. Sax (director of NASSPE) summarized the report.
The Australian Council for Educational Research compared performance of students at single-sex and coeducational schools. Their analysis, based on six years of study of over 270,000 students, in 53 academic subjects, demonstrated that both boys and girls who were educated in single-sex classrooms scored on average 15 to 22 percentile ranks higher than did boys and girls in coeducational settings.
The report also documented that "boys and girls in single-sex schools were more likely to be better behaved and they found classes more enjoyable and the curriculum more relevant."
The report concludes:
"Evidence suggests that coeducational settings are limited by their capacity to accommodate the large differences in cognitive, social and development growth rates of boys and girls aged between 12 and 16."

The benefits of single-sex schools are not only academic.
Just as importantly, single –sex education has been shown to broaden students’ horizons, to allow them to feel free to explore their own strengths and interests not constrained by gender stereotypes.
A British researcher compared the attitudes of 13 and 14 year old pupils toward different subjects.
Students at coed schools tended to have gender-typical subject preferences: boys at coed schools liked maths and science and did NOT like drama or languages, whereas boys at single-sex schools were more interested in drama, biology and languages.
Likewise, girls at girls-only schools were more interested in maths and science than were girls at coed schools.
Source:
A. Stables. Differences between pupils from mixed and single-sex schools in their enjoyment of school subjects and in their attitudes to science and to school. Educational Review, 42(3):221-230, 1990.

University of Virginia 2003
A University of Virginia study published in 2003 found that boys who attended single-sex schools were more than twice as likely to pursue interests in subjects such as art, music, drama, and foreign languages, compared to boys of comparable ability who attended coed schools.
Single-Sex schools break down gender stereotypes. Coed schools reinforce gender stereotypes.
Source:
Abigail Norfleet James and Herbert Richards, “Escaping stereotypes: educational attitudes of male alumni of single-sex and coed schools,” Psychology of Men ad Masculinity, 4:136-148, 2003.

June, 2002
The Impact of School Size and Single-Sex Education on Performance.
National Foundation for Educational Research (U.K)
This British study examined student performance data from 979 primary and 2,954 secondary schools. Among its objectives was to test assertions that single-sex education can be beneficial for girls and boys alike.

The study concluded that:
• Girls’ schools help counter gender-stereotyping in subject choices
• Girls in single-sex schools perform better than girls in co-ed schools
• Boys with low prior academic achievement score slightly better on the GCSE (a standardized test required for graduation) in boys’ schools than in co-ed schools
• Boys in single-sex grammar schools perform better than those in co-ed grammar schools.

May 2002
Dr. Ken Row, principal Research Fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research, says
“co-educational settings are limited in their capacity to accommodate the large differences in cognitive, social and developmental growth rates of girls and boys between the ages of 12 and 16.
In contrast… evidence suggests that during these key adolescent years, single-sex settings better accommodate the specific developmental needs of students.”
Source:
Watson, Quatman, Elder May 2002

The authors conclude:
“Girls at all levels of achievement in the single-sex schools received a…benefit from the single-sex school environment in terms of heightened career aspirations-an effect unprecedented in any other portion of our study.”