We’ve written about single sex education quite a bit here on the
‘Derby, both proand con –okay,the pro posts are usually me. And now
there’s a British study to back me up – girls who attended all girl’s
schools majorly outperformed their peers at coed schools.
Nearly 73 percent of pupils in all-girls school scored A grades on
their A-level math exams, an advanced test taken after thetopitnal
final two years of high school (about ages 16-187). That figure was
64.9% for girls in coed schools. Other subject areas showed similar
trends.
Now, the article I read only concentrated in students at private
schools versus those in regular public education, so it’s likely that
issues of class probably play a big role. However, as someone who
attended an all-girls high school, I have to say I think it does make a
big difference in girl’s academic achievement. There are no
distractions, no worries about buoys not liking you if you’re smarter
than them, and no teachers assuming that if you are a girl you are
automatically less serious and intelligent than similarly bright boys.
My friends from my all-girls high school are an educated, accomplished
group of women, and while we all have our issues with the school we
went to (too focused on money and very, very unfair when it came to
discipline), none of those issues would have made it better if boys
were around. Looks like the same is true across the pond.
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