> News Article Study: Girls do better [in education] without boys, study finds

[Qatada]

Girls are far more likely to thrive, get GCSEs and stay in education if they go to a single-sex school, according to new research, which reveals pupils who are struggling academically when they start secondary school reap the biggest rewards of girls-only schooling.

The analysis of the GCSE scores of more than 700,000 girls taught in the state sector concludes that those at girls' schools consistently made more progress than those in co-ed secondaries.

The fact that pupils with the lowest test scores when they started secondary made the biggest leap in girls' school will reopen the debate about whether more children should have access to a single-sex education in order to drive up results.

Girls do better without boys at school, study finds | Education | The Guardian

[Qatada]

asalaam alaikum



CAIRO — Girls in single-sex schools perform much better academically and more likely to stay in education than their counterparts in mixed schools, a new British research has found.
"We never expected to see such a difference," Janette Wallis, editor of the Good Schools Guide, which commissioned the research, told the Guardian on Wednesday, March 18.

Researchers looked at the "contextually value added" (CVA) scores for every girl who took GCSEs in the state sector between 2005 and 2007.

They analyzed data of some 71,000 girls in single-sex schools and compared that with the same information on 647,000 girls in mixed schools.

The results showed that all of the girls at single-sex schools did better than predicted on the basis of their end-of-primary results.


A Return to Single-Sexed Classes?

Girls who took exams in mixed-sex schools, meanwhile, did worse than expected.
The largest improvements even came among those who did badly at primary school, before they go to single-sex schools, according to the study.

Girls struggling academically when they started secondary school benefited most from being in girls-only schools, and they are more likely to get GCSEs and stay on at school to do A-levels.

Sue Dunford, head-teacher of Southfield School for Girls in Kettering, has an explanation.

"It's a question of confidence in the way girls develop.

"It's cool to be very good at anything in a girls school - maths, sciences or physics. No one will ask why you're doing a boys' subject," she told the British daily.

"Girls who lack confidence can thrive more in girls-only schools. We don't have boys competing and distracting, so girls can really go for it."

Significant

Wallis, whose organization offers a leading search guide for state and private schools, believes parents should draw lessons from the study results.

"A lot of parents will look at the benefits of co-ed schools, like the fact that girls and boys are educated side-by-side preparing them for the world of work and life," notes Wallis.

"But to disregard this evidence would be a mistake."

The popularity of girls schools has fallen in recent decades in both British state and private sectors, with an increasing proportion of parents preferring to send their daughters to mixed-sex schools.

Out of Britain's 3.5million-plus schoolchildren, only 221,000 girls go to all-girl state secondary schools and just 160,000 boys attend state boys' schools.

But even those who doubt the benefits of same-sex schools could not deny that the research is offering important indications.

"We know across the piece that the main variables relating to exam success are pupil characteristics, social background and quality of teacher," says Alan Smithers, director of education at Buckingham University.

"But if this is true it will change our understanding."

Source: islamonline.com

[Qatada]

Iraq Opts for Same-sex Schools

The Ministry of Education has decided to start implementing the new decision in primary schools first.

BAGHDAD -- The Iraqi government is planning to separate boys and girls in schools, a decision that is generating debate about how far it can help in the country’s development.
"We aren’t forcing gender division but building an environment where education can improve," Wafa’a al-Marasma, senior official at the Ministry of Education in Baghdad, told IslamOnline.net.

"Recent international studies suggest that such division can help in teaching and learning process and we are happy to try in Iraq."


A Return to Single-Sexed Classes?

The Ministry of Education has decided to start implementing the new decision in primary schools, than later at higher levels.
"The division has been implanted at Sadr district in Baghdad," al-Marasma said.

She noted that although the decision in the Shiite-dominated area was influenced by a religious group, it has been well accepted by locals.

The official admitted that some parents in other districts of Baghdad oppose the decision.

"We suggest those parents surf the internet and learn about the benefits it could have on their children's life."

In March, a new British research concluded that girls in single-sex schools perform much better academically and more likely to stay in education than their counterparts in mixed schools.

The largest improvements even came among those who did badly at primary school, before they go to single-sex schools, according to the study, commissioned by the Good Schools Guide.

Researchers found that girls struggling academically when they started secondary school benefited most from being in girls-only schools.

Mixed

The decision to go for single-sex schools drew criticism from human rights organisations and activists.

"This decision goes against Iraq's Constitution, which guaranteed same freedom of expression and rights to all sexes," Mayada Zuhair, a women activist and social researcher, told IOL.

"We don’t disagree about the possible good performance of students based on international studies."

She insists that dividing students will reinforce differences, generate more discrimination and destroy any hope of a future democracy.

"Iraq isn’t a European country that crossed gender differences but still a country where women are seen inferior and struggling to find their place in society."

Huda Mustafa, a primary school teacher, agrees with the argument.

"It is already hard to change some strong religious interference over children and I’m afraid that dividing by gender will reinforce, instead of ending, gender discrimination."

But Ali al-Jaryu, a mechanic and father of two girls at primary school, disagrees.

"Iraq is in a very delicate period and our girls should feel protected," he told IOL.

"Iraq is a Muslim country and our religion is very clear about the importance to keep contact with the same gender until marriage, except at home.

"We are looking forward for democracy but it shouldn’t affect our religious beliefs," he insisted.

"Maybe in the future they can lift this decision but nowadays I see it as the best option.

[Qatada]

N. Augusta students seeing success in single gender classes

NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. has ranked near the bottom in education for years. But now, it's leading the pack when it comes to offering single gender classes.

In the past seven years, the number of single gender classroom has skyrocketed to more than 500 and North Augusta Elementary is part of that single gender success.
It's just another day for students at North Augusta Elementary; going through the basics, reading, writing and arithmetic. But what's not so basic is their classes are all single gender.

"You can cater to their learning styles. You see how each of them learn differently, so it's been very neat and interesting because you pick up small things you don't normally pick up in a co-ed classroom," said fifth grade boys teacher Nathan Lobaugh.

"We've really been able to develop a supportive and encouraging classroom where the girls are willing to participate and really get involved in class activities," said fifth grade girls teacher Mindy Allee.

Both teachers say they've seen success with the single gender program. They say it opens their students up to their full potential. "They now compare notes with each other as opposed to being scared to share that information in a co-ed classroom," said Lobaugh.

As of November, there were 547 single gender classrooms across the nation. One hundred seventy-three of those are in South Carolina, that's almost thirty-two percent.
"I'm so proud to be a part of the success," said Allee. Teachers say not only does the program help with academics, it also helps to boost confidence. "I think it's really empowering, especially for the girls to be able to standout among their peers," said Allee.
The South Carolina (DOE) says 72 percent of students are more confident in class and 74 percent say they interact more in single gender classrooms. And it's those numbers that keep teachers at North Augusta Elementary pushing the program forward.
"I want the children to come through and say this is excellent. I'm learning a lot of things now and take it with me for the rest of my years,"said Lobaugh.
Chukker Creek and East Aiken Elementary schools also offer single gender classrooms within Aiken County.

[Qatada]

asalaam alaikum


K-12 Single-Sex Education: What Does the Research Say? ERIC Digest.


K-12 Single-Sex Education: What Does the Research Say? ERIC Digest. by Haag, Pamela


Interest in single-sex education has been reinvigorated by the educational reform movement and by skepticism about whether the coeducational environment fosters equitable treatment of boys and girls. However, the "for" or "against" stance that shapes popular literature on single-sex education is misleading because assessments of single-sex education's success or failure are contingent on (1) stakeholders' goals; (2) indicators of success used; (3) historical context; and (4) issues of selection bias, especially in the United States, where single-sex schools are overwhelmingly private. Although research on the effects of K-12 single-sex education is inconclusive in general, some common themes emerge in the research literature. This Digest reviews that research with particular attention to effects on girls' attitudes and achievement.


ATTITUDINAL VARIABLES SELF-ESTEEM.
Studies of the effect of school type on girls' self-esteem suggest that the sources of self-esteem for girls may differ in single-sex and coeducational schools. Studies that have found higher self-esteem for girls in the single-sex, as compared with the mixed-sex, environment have typically used multidimensional measures composed of subcategories such as academic, athletic, and social esteem. These studies' findings suggest that levels of girls' esteem in these individual subcategories-but not their general self-concept or global self- esteem-may differ between single-sex and mixed-sex environments.
For example, Cairns (1990) investigated self-esteem and locus of control (an individual's sense of how environment hinders or facilitates her or his goals) for students in secondary schools in Northern Ireland. He used a multidimensional measure of "self- esteem" made up of four subcategories--social, cognitive, athletic, and general--and concluded that single-sex schools are associated with benefits in self-esteem and locus of control, cautioning that his findings of higher esteem may be confined to cognitive self-concept. In another study from Northern Ireland, Granleese and Joseph (1993) deployed a domain-specific self- concept measure in their study of girls from one single-sex and one coed secondary school. Girls at the single-sex school were less critical of their own behavioral conduct than girls in the mixed school. This lack of criticism was the single best predictor of global self-worth in the all-girls' school. In the mixed-sex school, physical appearance was the single best predictor of degree of global self-worth.


On the other hand, Brutsaert and Bracke (1994) found little effect of school type in their study of sixth-grade girls and boys in Belgian elementary schools. While girls and boys seemed unaffected by the gender organization of the school, boys were negatively affected by a preponderance of female teachers on staff, which lowered boys' overall sense of well-being. Smith's (1996) 10-year study of students' attitudes and achievement in one all-boys' and one all-girls' high school in Australia that had made the transition to coeducation found that both girls' and boys' self-concept declined initially but after 5 years increased to a level above that which was measured when the students were in single-sex classrooms.


ATTITUDES TOWARD ACADEMIC SUBJECTS.
Several studies found that girls in single-sex schools may have stronger preferences for subjects such as math and physics than their coeducated peers. Mallam (1993) found that students in all-girls' Nigerian schools favored math more than girls in coed Nigerian public boarding schools, particularly when mathematics was taught by female teachers. Finally, Colley et al. (1994) surveyed British students (ages 11-12 and 15-16 years) from single-sex girls' and boys' schools and coeducational schools, asking them to rank their school subject preferences. In the younger age group, girls from single-sex schools showed stronger preferences than their coed peers for stereotypical "masculine" subjects such as mathematics and science, and boys from single-sex schools showed stronger preferences for stereotypical "feminine" subjects such as music and art.



ACHIEVEMENT VARIABLES
Research findings are ambiguous concerning the effects of single-sex schools on girls' achievement. For many studies that did find gaps favoring girls in single-sex schools, once findings were adjusted for socioeconomic or ability variables, these differences diminished. For example, Harker and Nash (1997) used data gathered in a longitudinal study of more than 5,000 eighth- grade students in New Zealand and controlled for individual characteristics (such as socioeconomic status) and school type. As with other studies, the researchers confirmed statistically significant differences in favor of girls at single-sex schools. Yet after applying controls for ability levels and for social and ethnic backgrounds, differences disappeared. LePore and Warren (1997), using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988, found that boys in single-sex schools did not increase their test scores more than boys in coeducational schools and that girls experienced no statistically significant positive effects of single-sex school enrollment.


Studies that have found positive achievement outcomes attributable to the single-sex environment have all dealt with single-sex schools rather than classes. A study by Riordan (1990) used longitudinal data to clarify the effects of single-sex education on different populations and curricular areas. Riordan conducted separate analyses for students by sex and race on academic and attitudinal outcomes. He discovered that among African American and Hispanic American students attending Catholic secondary schools, both males and females in single-sex schools scored higher on standardized cognitive tests than their peers in mixed-sex schools. To explain the differences, Riordan applied a set of school variables as controls. He argued that policies in single-sex schools that emphasize the academic side of these variables explained virtually all of the test score differences between the two types of schools. Both males and females in single-sex schools also gained on attitudinal variables such as leadership behavior, but much less of this difference was explained by school variables.
Lee and Marks (1990) investigated the "sustained effects" of single-sex schools on attitudes, behaviors, and values. They discovered that women who had attended single-sex schools had higher educational aspirations and were more likely than their coed counterparts to attend selective four-year colleges. However, after controls were applied for attendance at a selective college, effects on young women's aspirations disappeared, leading the researchers to conclude that single-sex education may be an indirect influence that facilitates entry into a select college in the first place. The study found that girls educated in single-sex schools continued to hold less stereotypic views of gender roles into college.
Lee and Lockheed's (1990) study of 1,012 students in ninth-grade Nigerian public schools measured mathematics achievement and stereotypic views of mathematics. Analyzing data drawn from the Second International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, Lee and Lockheed found no significant gender gap between mathematics scores of Nigerian boys and girls, once other variables were taken into account. But girls in single-sex schools outperformed other girls in mathematics, while boys in single-sex schools did the reverse, after the study adjusted for substantial differences in student background, school resources, and teacher attitudes. As in other studies, girls in single-sex schools had a less stereotypical view of math, while boys in single-sex schools had magnified stereotypes of the subject.



SUMMARY
Studies of attitudinal variables yielded some consistent findings, including differences in specific domains of self- concept between girls in single- and mixed-sex schools (but no overall differences), and findings that support the view that single-sex contexts foster less stereotypical views of subjects. Studies also concur that students perceive single-sex school environments to be more orderly.
Studies finding positive achievement effects attributable to school type tend to view their findings as specific to certain contexts and group characteristics (including socioeconomic status). Some studies recognize that some single-sex schools are "doing something different" that may be reproducible in the coeducational context. These studies view policy and training interventions as particularly valuable.
Other studies have not claimed positive achievement effects for single-sex programs. Although research finds that girls view the single-sex classroom as more conducive to learning, research fails to confirm significant gain in girls' math and science achievement in the single-sex classroom.
Finally, the research, while inconsistent in its assessments of whether single-sex education is "better" than coeducation for girls, does reveal areas of consensus on specific indicators, which may serve as starting points for further research into how single-sex schools affect educational outcomes.
This Digest was adapted from: Haag, Pamela. (1998). Single-sex education in grades K-12: What does the research tell us? In American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, Separated by sex: A critical look at single-sex education for girls. Washington, DC: Author.



FOR MORE INFORMATION
Brutsaert, H., & Bracke, P. (1994). Gender context of the elementary school: Sex differences in affecting outcomes. EDUCATIONAL STUDIES, 20(1), 3-11. EJ 492 031.
Cairns, E. (1990). The relationship between adolescent perceived self-competence and attendance at single-sex secondary school. BRITISH JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY, 60, 210.
Colley, A., Comber, C., & Hargreaves, D. J. (1994). School subject preferences of pupils in single-sex and co-educational secondary schools. EDUCATIONAL STUDIES, 20(3), 379-385. EJ 507 527.
Granleese, J., & Joseph, S. (1993). Self-perception profile of adolescent girls at a single-sex and a mixed-sex school. JOURNAL OF GENETIC PSYCHOLOGY, 60, 210.
Harker, R., & Nash, R. (1997, March). SCHOOL TYPE AND EDUCATION OF GIRLS: CO-ED OR GIRLS ONLY? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago. ED 410 633.
Leder, G. C., & Forgasz, H. J. (1994, April). SINGLE-SEX MATHEMATICS CLASSES IN A CO-EDUCATIONAL SETTING: A CASE STUDY. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans. ED 372 946.
Lee, V. E., & Lockheed, M. M. (1990). The effects of single-sex schooling on achievement and attitudes in Nigeria. COMPARATIVE EDUCATIONAL REVIEW, 34(2), 209-231. EJ 412 239.
Lee, V. E., & Marks, H. M. (1990). Sustained effects of the single-sex secondary school experience on attitudes, behaviors, and sex differences. JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY, 82(3), 588.
LePore, P. C., & Warren, J. R. (1997). A comparison of single-sex and coeducational Catholic secondary schooling: Evidence from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988. AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL, 34(3), 485-511. EJ 551 431.
Mallam, W. A. (1993). Impact of school-type and sex of the teacher on female students' attitudes toward mathematics in Nigerian secondary schools. EDUCATIONAL STUDIES IN MATHEMATICS, 24(2), 223-229. EJ 476 667.
Riordan, C. (1990). Single gender schools: Outcomes for African and Hispanic Americans. In RESEARCH IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION AND SOCIALIZATION (Vol. 18, pp. 177-205). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Smith, I. D. (1996, August). THE IMPACT OF COEDUCATIONAL SCHOOLING ON STUDENT SELF-CONCEPT AND ACHIEVEMENT. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development, Quebec. ED 400 090.