The Advantages of Single Gender Education

Picture a classroom. It doesn't matter what subject, or what grade level. Imagine the teacher asks a question of the class... and virtually every hand shoots right up into the air. Virtually every student is eager to answer, enthusiastic about learning.

This is a scene played out daily in the classrooms of NCGS member schools. Girls' school classrooms are places where education is prized, where teachers feel empowered, where girls are excited about being in school.

A Growing Consensus

In 1982, Harvard University researcher Carol Gilligan authored a book that would go on to trigger a revolution in education. With In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development, Dr. Gilligan established that girls think, interact, display leadership and make decisions in a way that is unique both psychologically and developmentally. The male-based model, she found, simply did not fit the way girls learn.

Dr. Gilligan's conclusions, as well as a growing awareness of disparities in academic performance between girls and boys, led to a closer examination of what actually goes on in a co-ed classroom. In Shortchanging Girls, Shortchanging America, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) found that girls routinely were called upon less often. Professors Myra and David Sadker echoed those findings in "Failing at Fairness: How Schools Shortchange Girls", a compendium of 10 years of their research at American University.

Since then, single-gender education has been the subject of increasing interest among researchers, and several major reports have detailed the ways in which all-girl learning environments can be beneficial. A 2000 study of 4,274 girls' school alumnae, conducted for NCGS by the Goodman Research Group of Cambridge, Massachusetts, examined outcomes at single-gender schools for girls. The girls' school alumnae were overwhelmingly positive in their responses:

• 91% cited preparation for college and academic challenge as very good or excellent
• 88% would repeat their girls' school experience
• 83% perceived themselves to be better prepared for college than female counterparts from co-educational high schools
• 93% agreed that girls' schools provide greater leadership opportunities than coed schools; additionally, 80% had held leadership positions since graduating from high school
• 13% intended to major in math or science - significantly more than females and males nationally (2% and 10% respectively)

Many participants in the Goodman study volunteered commentary in support of the survey questions; for example: "At the girls' school I attended, academics and being smart were the focus of most students." "I was constantly challenged, stimulated, exposed to new ideas, encouraged and supported." "Because of my girls' school experience, I developed a strong sense of myself and the confidence to make important choices in my life."

Girls' schools know that students who are held to the highest expectations, given access to the best resources, and who are led to understand that serious schooling is theirs for the taking do not turn back. This is exactly the culture of a girls' school, and time spent within one transforms girls. It is a sound investment for life.