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Teenagers who attend single-sex schools do no better in exams
than those in co-ed schools, according to research from the
Institute of Education in London, but they are twice as likely
to study subjects not traditionally associated with their
gender.
The researchers found that 22% of pupils in all-girls' schools
gained maths, chemistry or physics A-levels, nearly twice
as many as in co-ed schools. Boys in single-sex schools were
similarly more likely to take English and modern language
A-levels.
The findings come from a long-term study on the lives of
nearly 13,000 people who were teenagers in 1974 and are now
in their 40s. The study found pupils in single-sex schools
were also more confident in their ability to do well in these
subjects and girls were more likely to gain qualifications
in male-dominated subjects at university and go on to earn
higher salaries.
However, the research, which was funded by the Economic and
Social Research Council, shows single-sex education made almost
no difference to exam results. Boys do no better once their
family background and previous ability were taken into account.
Girls did fractionally better at 0-level than girls in mixed
schools but did no better in further and higher education.
(TES, 22 September 2006)
New American research casts
doubt on the theory that girls perform better away from boys
Single sex schooling no longer offers middle-class girls
any academic advantages according to new research conducted
in America.
During the 1970s and 1980s, several US studies found that
most girls benefited if they were taken out of male dominated
classrooms. But today only girls - and boys - from disadvantaged
families show "significant gains" from single-sex education
according to Cornelius Riordan, of Providence College, Rhode
Island, who has been conducting research in this field
for almost 20 years. And even for poorer children, the type
of school attended is much less important than either home
background or the school's curriculum, he says.
Recent US studies of elite independent schools and the Catholic
education sector have confirmed that girls now do equally
well in single-sex and co-educational schools.
Riordan does not say whether his findings could also be
applicable to Britain. But he points out that a 1995 study
- involving researchers in Japan, Belgium, New Zealand and
Thailand - revealed that the impact of single sex schools
varies from one country to another. The effect seems to be
limited to those national education systems in which single-sex
schools are relatively rare. When they are rare, there is
a more selective student body who will bring with them a heightened
degree of academic demands."
Doing Gender in policy and practice: perspectives on single-sex
and co-educational schooling, edited by Amanda Datnow
and Lea Hubbard, is published by Routledge Falmer.
(TES, 18 May 2001)
Single sex classes - three year
study in Scottish schools
Single sex classes at a Motherwell school (Scotland) may indicate
a way forward for others, say Jim Wilson and Molly Cumming The
underachievement among boys in S3-S4 is a cause for much debate
and Dalziel High School in Motherwell is conducting a three-year
research project that began in 1998 with two aims. First, to
improve attainment in mathematics and English language at Standard
grade. Second, to try to identify general precursors for improving
attainment that could be used in future with any school-based
initiative concerned with attainment.
For more information click here
to see article from Scottish TES, 26 November 1999.
Single sex schools do well because
they get the best pupils
Girls' schools do well in exam league tables because they
have clever pupils, not because they are single-sex, according
to a new review of research evidence.
The findings of researchers at London University's Institute
of Education came just before the publication of A-level and
GCSE results tables in which girls have excelled for many
years.
Since the introduction of league tables, girls' schools
have used their exam results to argue the case for single-sex
education. But researchers Janette Elwood and Caroline Gipps
found that social class, ability and the history and tradition
of the schools had a much greater impact on the results girls
achieve. They concluded that "girls' schools in both the idependent
and state sectors are well-placed in the performance tables
because girls do better than boys generally in examinations
at the end of compulsory schooling."
Nor, they argue, is there any conclusive evidence that the
popular practice of teaching boys and girls in separate classes
for some subjects raises achievement.
They reviewed research evidence on single-sex education
for the past 20 years both in this country and abroad. The
findings, drawn from the an Equal Opportunities Commission
study in the early Eighties to a recent study by Professor
Alan Smithers and Dr Pamela Robinson, suggest that single-sex
education has little impact on girls' academic achievement.
Most studies in Australia, the United States and Ireland have
reached similar conclusions.
However, many parents are enthusiastic about single-sex
education for their daughters for other reasons. "Parents
preferring single-sex education tend to believe that, in the
absence of boys, girls develop more self-confidence, are more
likely to encounter female role models in leadership and traditionally
male subjects and are less likely to choose stereotyped subjects,"
the report said. By contrast, boys-only schools are unpopular
with parents.
The researchers say that the evidence supports parents'
views that single-sex schools and classes do improve girls'
self esteem. An Australian research project found that girls
in co-educational schools were much more likely to rank themselves
in the bottom half of the class. In single sex schools, girls
were as likely as boys to put themselves among the high-flyers.
The number of single-sex schools in England has fallen from
about 2000 in the late Sixties to around 400 in 1999. But
the separation of boys and girls for some subjects has become
more popular during the past decade.
The report says that there is some evidence of the positive
effects of such separation but warns against "quick fixes.
What we are seeing in the current panic about boys' underachievement
is the strategy of single-sex teaching being used to counteract
the poorer results of boys in English. These initiatives are,
however, being carried out with no supporting evidence that
such strategies in themselves actually improve performance."
It also found that all-girls schools lead to too much competition
and that pupils were "prone to spitefulness". Mixed schools
tend to get more out of boys and girls who are in the lower
ability bands than high-fliers. Girls out-perform boys at
virtually every subject, yet studies show that young men still
get the best jobs.
(Independent and Express, 12 August 1999)
Some schools believe that their
experiments in teaching single sex have improved boys' performance
For example, the Pingle School, a comprehensive in Swadlincote,
Derbyshire, first introduced single sex teaching two years
ago because of concerns about a class of 12-year-olds who
were behaving badly. The year group was segregated for 70
per cent of their lessons. After a term, 85% of boys and 82%
of girls said they preferred being taught this way. Behaviour
improved 'phenomenally' according to Mike Mayers, the headteacher,
and 45% of the year group are now expected to achieve five
grade A to Cs at GCSE, compared to a forecast of only 29%
when the monitoring started. With monitoring by Loughborough
University, the school now segregates all its 11 - to 14-year-olds
for 80% of lessons and GCSE students are taught in single-sex
classes for English, maths and science.
(The Independent, 26 November 1998)
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