4/8/2009
Graduates of girls’ secondary schools have a definite edge over their coed peers. UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute recently released the results of a well-documented study that shows a statistically significant advantage. Commissioned by the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools, the UCLA study offers the first-ever peer-reviewed research on the subject. Ever since educators observed that girls tend to slide in confidence and academic achievement in early adolescence, interest in girls’ schools has risen. Yet, single-sex education has defied rigorous analysis due to confounding demographic and other influences. The results of this new study, drawn from a large blind sample of alumnae from coed and girls’ schools across the country, give educators more facts to support their theories.
UCLA’s study uses a multilayered approach to correct for socioeconomic differences and high school variables. The findings, assessed by Linda J. Sax and her colleagues in descriptive comparisons as well as statistical analyses, compares the achievements, aspirations, and behaviors of 6,552 graduates of 225 independent girls’ schools, and 14,684 of their peers from 1,169 coeducational independent schools.
According to the UCLA report, girls’ school graduates consistently assess their abilities, self-confidence, engagement and ambition as either above average or in the top 10 percent. Compared to their coed peers, they have more confidence in their mathematics and computer abilities and study longer hours. They are more likely to pursue careers in engineering, engage in political discussions, keep current with political affairs, and see college as a stepping stone to graduate school, the study found.
The new data from UCLA’s nationwide study of women entering their first year of college reveal girls’ school alumnae assess themselves stronger across the academic disciplines:
• Ten percent more girls’ school graduates rate their confidence in math and computer abilities high at the start of college compared to their peers from coed schools. That is, 47.7 percent of women entering college from single-sex schools feel well-prepared in math, as compared to 36.6 percent from coed schools. A similar gap turned up when comparing computer skills: 35.8 percent of girls’ school graduates report self-confidence versus 25.9 percent of their coed peers.
• More than 80 percent of girls’ school graduates consider their academic performance highly successful compared to 75 percent of women from coed schools. On the intellectual front, 60 percent of women from girls’ schools report self-confidence, compared to 54 percent from coed schools.
• Nearly half of all women graduating from single-sex schools (or 44.6 percent) rate their public speaking ability high, compared to 38.5 percent of women graduates of coed schools. A similar differential exists for writing abilities: 64.2 percent girls’ school graduates assess their writing as high, compared to 58.8 percent women graduates of coed schools.
• Women graduates of single-sex independent schools spend more time studying or doing homework, talking with teachers outside of class, tutoring peers, and studying with others. Indeed, 53 percent of independent girls’ school graduates study with other students, compared with 45 percent of their coed peers; and 63 percent spend 11 plus hours a week studying or doing homework compared with 42 percent of the coeds. And 37 percent of girls’ school alumnae spend 3 or more hours a week talking with teachers, compared to 30 percent among women from coed schools.
• Girls’ school graduates are three times more likely than their coed peers to consider pursuing a career in engineering; or 4.4 percent compared to 1.4 percent.
• More girls’ school graduates consider college a stepping stone to graduate school (71 percent versus 66 percent from coed schools) and 45 percent of women from single-sex schools (compared to 41 percent of their coed peers) choose a college in part for its record of alumnae gaining admission to graduate school.
• Political engagement thrives in single-sex schools: 57.9 percent of girls’ school graduates compared to 47.7 percent of their coed peers report they are more likely to keep current with the political scene and have political discussions in class.
As the UCLA study points out, girls’ school graduates rate themselves more successful and engaged in precisely those areas in which male students have historically surpassed them — mathematics, computers, engineering, and politics. The findings may undermine opponents of girls’ schools, who argue that single-sex education accentuates sex-based stereotypes and widens the gender gap.
While it offers solid evidence of the effectiveness of girls’ schools, the study raises important new questions. How and why do girls’ schools produce such positive outcomes? What conditions are most conducive to academic, social, and political engagement and self-confidence? Which students benefit most from single-sex education?
Since the early 1990s, NCGS, a national girls’ school advocacy group, has worked to document the value of girls’ schools. Since the shift in title IX in 2006, 94 new single sex schools have been formed in the US. Two-thirds of them are girls’ schools. “Single-gender education represents a valuable opportunity. It has well-documented results in terms of benefits and successful outcomes independent of high school variables. Our nation’s girls are a national resource and they deserve the best we can offer them.” said Meg Milne Moulton, executive director of NCGS. |