Single-Sex Education

Alexa Spencer

Hour: 2

Single-Sex Education

Are single-sex schools meant for good of for harm? Single-sex schools are a bad idea because they don’t give chances for kids to have friends or relationships with the opposite sex. They cause more drama with girls, and cause more fighting with boys. If you send your child to a coed school, they’ll encounter more diversity, which gives them more respect, sympathy, and understanding for the opposite gender and the real world. (Stanberry, 1998-2013)

When students attend single-gender schools, they become limited in their abilities to successfully interact with the opposite sex. This could promote an inability to understand each other, which increases negative future interactions. But according to Leonard Sax, founder of the National Association for Single-Sex Public Education, “…whenever girls and boys are together, their behavior inevitably reflects the larger society in which they live.” Now depending on one’s point of view, this statement could go either way, against or for. Part of the idea of going to school is to prepare your child for ‘real life’ when they leave. There is no doubt ‘the real world’ is mixed gender rather than single sex and so that means the best way to do this would be to emulate the school. (Springer Link, Unknown)

Although, researchers have proved that girls attending girls’ schools were significantly more likely to attend a four-year college compared with girls attending coed schools (Cohen’s d = 0.5, p < 0.01). The boys’ results turned out very similar with the girls’ results. Single-sex schools are causally linked with both college entrance exam scores and college-attendance rates for both boys and girls. Compared with coeducational schools, single-sex schools have a higher percentage of graduates who moved on to four-year colleges. (Springer Link, Unknown)

They say single-sex schools are good for academic reasons, and that may be true. But studies have shown that in the last decade, 130 independent schools that were single sex have either become co-educational or closed down. Studies all over the world have failed to detect any major differences. Girls’ schools can make ‘exaggerated claims’ because of their excellent league table positions. But, according to Smithers, they do well because many are independent or grammar schools. The report will conclude that gender has very little impact on how well a school performs. Ability and social background drive results. (Stanberry, 1998-2013)

In different people’s perspectives, single-sex education could be used for good or harm. You’ve seen the negatives and positives of this education. The single-gender format is better for some students, and coed is better for others. For some kids and parents, it’s a distraction for the other sex to be in the same learning room. (Unknown, NASSPE, Unknown) Hopefully if your school ever considers this idea, you’ll be prepared for what’s coming. Do what’s best for the kids, not for the bother, or the distractions.

Works Cited

Stanberry, K. (1998-2013, Unknown Unknown). Great Schools. Retrieved March 28, 2013, from http://www.greatschools.org/: http://www.greatschools.org/find-a-school/defining-your-ideal/1139-single-sex-education-the-pros-and-cons.gs

Springer Link. (Unknown, Unknown Unknown). Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13524-012-0157-1

Unknown. (Unknown, Unknown Unknown). NASSPE. Retrieved March 28, 2013, from http://www.singlesexschools.org/: http://www.singlesexschools.org/research-forgirls.htm

Unknown. (Unknown, Unknown Unknown). Springer Link. Retrieved March 28, 2013, from http://link.springer.com/: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13524-012-0157-1

Single-Sex Schools    Girls attending girls' schools were significantly more likely to attend a 4-year college compared with girls attending coed schools (Cohen's d = 0.5, p < 0.01). Boys who graduated from boys' schools were significantly more likely to attend a 4-year college compared with boys who significantly higher test scores compared with boys at coed schools; likewise, girls at girls' schools also earned significantly higher test scores compared with girls at coed schools. Single-sex schools are causally linked with both college entrance exam scores and college-attendance rates for both boys and girls. Attending all-boys schools or all-girls schools, rather than attending coeducational schools, is significantly associated with higher average scores on Korean and English test scores. Compared with coeducational schools, single-sex schools have a higher percentage of graduates who moved on to four-year colleges.   Published in October 2012 by the journal Demography, http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13524-012-0157-1.    The single-gender format is better for some students, and coed is better for others.   The all-girls format can greatly enhance the engagement of girls in physics. That reality was demonstrated most dramatically by the research of Bettina Hannover and Ursula Kessels. They randomly assigned 401 8th-graders either to single-gender physics class or to coed physics class, for one school year. At the end of the year, the girls who had been randomly assigned to the all-girls classroom were more engaged in physics and less likely to agree with statements such as "physics is for boys." Girls who had been randomly assigned to coed physics class were more likely to agree that "physics is for boys." The article is titled "When being a girl matters less: accessibility of gender-related self-knowledge in single-sex and coeducational classes and its impact on students' physics-related self-concept of ability, "British Journal of Educational Psychology, volume 78, pp. 273 � 289, 2008.   First point to remember, when you consider evidence regarding the effectiveness of gender-separate classrooms: Simply putting girls in one room, and boys in another, is no guarantee of anything good happening. On the contrary: some public schools which have adopted single-sex classrooms, without appropriate preparation, have experienced bad outcomes. Dr. Leonard Sax, executive director of NASSPE, made this point back in 2005 in a commentary for Education Week entitled "the Promise and PERIL of Single-Sex Public Education".  The single-sex format creates opportunities that don't exist in the coed classroom. Teachers can employ strategies in the all-girls classroom, and in the all-boys classroom, which don't work as well (or don't work at all) in the coed classroom. If teachers have appropriate training and professional development, then great things can happen, and often do happen.