K-12 Single-Sex Education: What Does the Research Say? (continued)

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.