The benefits advantages of single sex schools-.-Here are few paragraphs on what Ive learned about girls schools after having taught in two for a total of eighteen years. The first was a Roman Catholic day school in the Midwest and I am currently teaching in an east coast boardi big butts nd a prison. I have heard many horror stories about sisters making girls kneel on the sidewalk to check skirt length before they could enter school. Clearly at one time propriety was enforced ferociously perhaps out of fear students might follow the garden path to an unwanted pregnancy. While we have strict rules about things like signing in and out of dorms students today have a lot of freedom to be off campus and they typically dont feel like they are being scrutinized for the least misbehavior or for a slightly risqu outfit. For some years now girls schools have decidedly not been the smothering op big booty ike signing in and out of dorms students today have a lot of freedom to be off campus and they typically dont feel like they are being scrutinized for the least misbehavior or for a slightly risqu outfit. For some years now girls schools have decidedly not been the smothering oppressive institutions of yesteryear. Students now have many opportunities to meet boys if they so choose. There are dances they can attend at various neighboring schools almost every other weekend. -.-Second the primary virtue of single sex schools is that they offer every student an opportunity to explore his or her gifts and leadership potential sheltered to some extent from the pressure to perform for the opposite sex. Problems related to possible sexist teaching practices are virtually eliminated. A homely or awkward student can find an equal opportunity at our school to grow learn and show what she can do. I have witnessed many girls who were marginalized and alienated in coed schools for one reason or another come to ours and feel immediately liberated to find and develop their abilities. -.-Third a cooperative learning environment is much more likely to predominate in a single sex school precisely because it is clear that individuals are responsible and free to learn without being boxed in by sexual stereotypes. Girls can pursue science. Boys can pursue the arts. Talent can flow more naturally to those subjects in which it will be best expressed. -.-Fourth Girls form friendships that last a lifetime. This is a commonplace of single sex education but striking in the larger cultural context of a society that militates against close and lasting bonds. -.-Fifth It has to be good for girls to experience at least one community in which girls and women run the show and participate in all its functions. -.-Sixth I dont have any evidence for this claim but judging from how our students typically get into their first choice colleges I think admissions committees in colleges look favorably upon candidates coming from single sex schools. -.-Seventh Again the following is an anecdotal claim based upon my own experience. It is easier to teach in a single sex environment because the teacher is faced generally with one type of psychology. Girls and boys really do differ in a general way in their learning styles. Mixing the students is a greater challenge to the teachers skill time and patience. Reducing that stress opens the possibility that the teacher will use more of his or her energy planning and teaching imaginatively.-.-Additional Recent Data-.-UCLA Study Shows Girls Schools Have Edge-.-3252009-.-The findings analyzed by UCLAs Dr. Linda J. Sax and her colleagues draws on the large database housed at UCLAs Higher Education Research Institute. Descriptive comparisons as well as statistical analyses compares the achievements aspirations and behaviors of 6552 graduates of 225 independent girls schools and 14684 of their peers from 1169 coeducational high schools public independent and parochial. -.-According to the UCLA report which was commissioned by the National Coalition of Girls Schools 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 new data from UCLAs nationwide study of women entering their first year of college reveals girls school alumnae assess themselves stronger across the academic disciplines. Statistically significant are the following findings -.-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. -.-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 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. -.-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 schools 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. -.-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 perks and successful outcomes independent of high school variables. Our nations girls are a national resource and they deserve the best we can offer them. said Meg Milne Moulton Executive Director of NCGS. This article reprinted with permission from NCGS for statistical support for the findings please visit the NCGS website
