Study Shows Benefits of All-Girls Schools

Those of us who teach at girls' schools know that there is something unique about our graduates.

Heads of girls' schools point to prominent alumnae in politics, business, education, medicine, engineering, and the arts who attribute their successes to single-sex education. We have collected anecdotes, stories, and personal testimonials to support our belief in the personal power that our girls develop.

I dare say that Georgia O'Keeffe would not have become the renowned artist she was without the training, encouragement, and, ultimately, the teaching position that my school, Chatham Hall, offered her.

Yet we still hear the banging against multiple glass ceilings. Although women are half of the work force, they make 73 cents for every dollar a man makes. Women continue to lag behind men in the professional fields of chemistry, computers, and engineering.

There are the characterizations of all-girls schools as outmoded, old-fashioned, and -- because they do not admit boys -- unlike the real world. How can you prepare girls for adult life if there are no boys around, we are asked? What evidence of substance is there that proves the relevance and value of single-sex education?

We now have some answers to questions like these and solid evidence of the effectiveness of girls' schools.

A new statistical study, commissioned by the National Coalition of Girls' Schools (NCGS), was released a few weeks ago: "Women Graduates of Single-Sex and Coeducational High Schools: Differences in their Characteristics and the Transition to College." The work of Linda J. Sax at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, this study offers statistical proof of the advantages that graduates from all-girls' schools have when they enter college.

Sax and her colleagues studied the responses to an extensive questionnaire assessing the backgrounds, behaviors, attitudes, and aspirations of 6,552 graduates from 225 all-girls' high schools with those of 14,684 of their peers in 1,169 coeducational high schools.

A range of background differences between these two populations (e.g., family income, parental education, race/ethnicity, school enrollment, and course offerings) were taken into account in their analysis. Sax's overall statistical conclusion is that there are "significant differences between single-sex and coeducational alumnae . . . across multiple categories, including self-confidence, political and social activism, life goals, and career orientation."

The new study outlines several areas in which graduates of girls' schools assess their abilities more strongly than their counterparts in coeducational schools:

• All-girls'-school graduates rate their confidence in mathematics and computer science 10 percentage points higher than those of their peers from coed schools.

• More than 80 percent of all-girls'-school graduates consider their academic performance highly successful, compared to 75 percent of female graduates from coed schools.

• All-girls'-school graduates rate their public speaking and writing abilities 5 to 6 percentage points higher than girls in coed schools.

• All-girls'-school graduates spend more time studying or doing their homework (11 or more hours per week), conversing with their teachers outside of class, tutoring their peers, and studying with one another.

• Graduates from all-girls-schools are three times more likely than their coed peers to major in engineering.

• More all-girls'-school graduates (71 percent) consider college a stepping stone to graduate school than their coed peers (66 percent).

• Political engagement thrives in all-girls' schools: 58 percent of their graduates are likely to keep current with political issues and discuss them with their friends, compared with 48 percent of their coed peers.

• Women graduates from single-sex high schools outscored their coed peers in composite SAT scores by 43 points.

Self-perception and self-confidence are significant indicators of success in college and in life. We also know that girls tend to lose self-confidence in their adolescent years. Sax's study shows girls' schools reversing this trend. Most important, this study shows all-girls'-school graduates rating themselves as more successful and engaged in areas in which male students have historically excelled -- mathematics, computers, engineering, and politics.

While this study affirms the power of all-girls' schools, it also raises a number of issues for future research. What are the reasons for these positive outcomes in all-girls'-schools? What girls benefit most from all-girls' schools? How do these benefits enhance girls' college experiences and lives? How do the effects of single-sex education differ for males and females? Might some of these results be transferred to coeducational schools?

Of course, no one kind of school is right for every student. However, the statistical analysis of this study suggests that parents who are looking for the most effective education for their daughters would be wise to explore girls' schools. Something different and significantly positive for girls is going on there. That, now, is a fact.
Gary Fountain, is the Rector at Chatham Hall, an all-girls' boarding-and-day high school in Chatham, Virginia. Contact him at gfountain@chathamhall.org. A press release with links to Linda Sax's study can be found at the Web Site of the National Coalition of Girls' Schools: http://www.ncgs.org.