Single-sex schooling,gender and educational performance: Evidence using PISA data

The advantages and disadvantages of single-sex schooling continue to be a source of policy and public debate. Previous empirical evidence is somewhat ambiguous, with some studies finding a positive impact of single-sex schooling on education achievement and others finding no differences across school types. The relationship between single-sex schooling on academic outcomes is typically problematic to examine, as in most countries single-sex schools are selective and the numbers attending them are relatively small. In Ireland, a high proportion of secondary school children (~1/3) attend a single-sex school. In addition, these schools are largely state-funded and non-selective but differing in composition compared to mixed-sex schools. For this reason, the Irish educational system provides an interesting setting for exploring the outcomes of single-sex schooling. In this context, this study utilises the 2018 PISA data for Ireland to examine the relationship between single-sex education and mathematics, reading and science literacy performance for boys and girls, respectively, as well as differences across gender in these outcomes. We find significant raw gaps in reading, science and mathematics scores between females in single-sex and mixed-sex schools and in mathematics scores for males across the same school types. However, after controlling for a rich set of individual, parental and school-level factors we find that, on average, there is no significant difference in performance for girls or boys who attend single-sex schools compared to their mixed-school peers in science, mathematics or reading. In terms of heterogeneous analysis, this finding is consistent across the performance distribution.     

US principals’ attitudes about and experiences with single-sex schooling

Despite a lack of scientific evidence supporting the use of single-sex education, the number of US public schools offering single-sex education has increased. However, our understanding as to why decision-makers have implemented single-sex education is lacking. To address this gap, we surveyed US public school principals and assessed their attitudes about and experiences with single-sex schooling. Sixty-seven principals from single-sex schools and 193 principals from co-educational schools participated. The results indicated that principals who had experience with single-sex schooling tended to have more positive attitudes about single-sex schooling, viewed it as more effective, and more often evoked gender-essentialist rationales for the use of single-sex schooling than did co-educational principals. However, both single-sex and co-educational principals noted issues with single-sex schooling. It was concluded that single-sex schooling is not a silver bullet to educational reform and that when single-sex schooling is implemented, one set of issues and problems is substituted for another.     

School composition and peer effects in distinctive organizational settings

This chapter reviews the research on school composition and peer effects from three comparative perspectives—Catholic and public schools, single-sex and coeducational schools, and small and large schools. Most of the research is sociological, focuses on high schools, and draws on national samples. The chapter seeks to discern cumulative trends in this research as it has evolved over the past two decades. Catholic schools have consistently edged public schools in achievement, but whether they offer additional benefits to minority and economically disadvantaged students is inconclusive. Although earlier studies suggested a single-sex school advantage, more recent research finds no difference between the two school types. Student achievement is higher in smaller schools, specifically schools in the 600–900 range, and in smaller schools achievement is more equitably distributed. While most of the reviewed research examined compositional rather than peer effects, some studies have offered theoretical perspectives that implicate peer effects. Research on compositional and peer effects would be enhanced by further development of theory, education databases designed to investigate multilevel questions, broader application of multilevel statistical techniques, and a search for the mechanisms through which compositional and peer effects operate.     

On reconstructing school segregation: The efficacy and equity of single-sex schooling

A change to Title IX has spurred new single-sex public schooling in the US. Until recently, nearly all gender-segregated schools were private, and comprehensive data for public school comparisons are not yet available. To investigate the effects of single-sex education, I focus on within private sector comparisons, and additionally address selection bias using an index comparing expectations to outcomes and quantile regressions. Compared to graduates from private coed schools, girls’ school alumnae are no more likely to pursue college degrees, and both genders are less likely to meet their own educational expectations. However, single-sex schooling may support gender equity, as single-sex schools yield the least segregated college major choices. On the other hand, higher mean starting salaries among single-sex school graduates do not persistent in regression results. Much of the benefit from single-sex schooling accrues to students already likely to succeed, but selection bias does not explain all gains. There are some benefits for African-American men and low income students.     

International Evidence on School Competition,Autonomy, and Accountability: A Review

This article reviews evidence from four international student achievement tests on the effects on student performance of competition from privately managed schools, schools' freedom to make autonomous decisions, and accountability introduced by external exit exams. The multivariate cross-country regressions are performed at the level of individual students and control for extensive family and school background information. The results reveal that students perform better in countries with more competition from privately managed schools, in countries where public funding ensures that all families can make choices, in schools that have freedom to make autonomous process and personnel decisions, where teachers have both freedom and incentives to select appropriate teaching methods, where parents take interest in teaching matters, and where school autonomy is combined with external exams that provide an information basis allowing for well-informed choices and holding schools accountable for their autonomous decisions.     

Poles Apart? An exploration of single-sex and mixed-sex educational environments in Australia and England

This paper contributes to debates on the benefits of single-sex and co-educational school environments by considering both single-sex versus co-educational schools and single-sex versus co-educational classes in co-educational schools. Two research studies provide the empirical basis for this discussion. One study was a 10-year-long investigation of two Australian secondary schools which had been single-sex schools and became co-educational secondary schools over a two-year period. The second study involved a two-year investigation in an English co-educational secondary school where single-sex mathematics classes were introduced for one cohort of pupils for five school terms, after which mixed-sex classes were reintroduced. Evidence relating to academic self-concept, pupil, parent and staff perceptions and academic achievement are discussed. Overall, the evidence suggests that co-educational environments create possible social/interaction disadvantages for girls, but that academic self-concept is not adversely affected by transferring from single-sex environments into mixed-sex ones.     

Relationship between private schooling and achievement: Results from rural and urban India

This paper contributes to the important but small body of research on the role of private schools in Indian education. It uses a household dataset from India with a rich set of household covariates and student performance data on reading, writing, and mathematics. For both rural and urban India the results from regression analyses indicate that private school students perform better on tests controlling for covariates. In both contexts, however, the private school benefit becomes largely, statistically, insignificant after conducting multivariate analysis on data balanced using the propensity score matching technique. The paper also makes an initial attempt to identify ‘low-fee’ private schools; within the regression framework it finds that children in such schools may perform no better than their public school counterparts. The data and methods used in this paper are not without limitations; however these analyses call into question the claim that private school effect may be unequivocally positive and highlights the potential heterogeneity in private school performance in the Indian context.     

Assessing the effect of school days and absences on test score performance

While instructional time is viewed as crucial to learning, little is known about the effectiveness of reducing absences relative to increasing the number of school days. Using administrative data from North Carolina public schools, this paper jointly estimates the effect of absences and length of the school calendar on test score performance. We exploit a state policy that provides variation in the number of school days prior to standardized testing and find substantial differences between these two effects. Extending the school calendar by ten days increases math and reading test scores by only 1.7% and 0.8% of a standard deviation, respectively. A similar reduction in absences would lead to gains of 5.5% in math and 2.9% in reading. We perform a number of robustness checks including utilizing flu data to instrument for absences, family-year fixed effects, distinguishing between excused and unexcused absences, and controlling for a contemporaneous measure of student disengagement. Our results are robust to these alternative specifications. In addition, our findings indicate considerable heterogeneity across student ability, suggesting that targeting absenteeism among low performing students could aid in narrowing current gaps in performance.     

Mixed schools versus single-sex schools: are there differences in the academic results for boys and girls in Catalonia?

This study carries out a comparative analysis of achievement according to gender between mixed and single-sex schools in the region of Catalonia, Spain, for the subjects of Spanish, Catalan, English and Mathematics. After a brief contextualisation, a review of the main findings from international studies on differences in results for mixed schools and single-sex schools is then presented. We then outline our methodology and research-analysis plan. The study has been developed around a specific use of results obtained by students over the last year of primary school (12 years old) and over the last year of obligatory secondary education (16 years). For this comparison, the statistical technique of Propensity Score Matching was used. All segregated schools in Catalonia were chosen, representing a total of 15, of which 9 are girls-only and 6 are boys-only (with a total of 1503 students); additionally, a sample was used of 10 mixed schools, similar in terms of social make-up, that is, middle- and upper-class students (with a total of 1217 students). In general, the results corroborate international research. Results indicate that differences in achievement depending on gender in segregated or mixed schools are not related to factors of school organisation. We also come to conclusions with respect to the limitations arising from circumscribing school performance in curricular subjects, and to the need to consider further indicators within the teaching-and-learning process in terms of gender and emotional development; student attitudes and behaviour; self-concept and – most especially – teacher expectations, their teaching practices and the effects of these on self-concept and single-sex school performance.     

The Effect of Catholic Schooling on Math and Reading Development in Kindergarten Through Fifth Grade

Abstract

Prior research estimating the effect of Catholic schooling has focused on high school, where evidence suggests a positive effect of Catholic versus public schooling. In this article, we estimate the effect of attending a Catholic elementary school rather than a public school on the math and reading skills of children in kindergarten through fifth grade. We use nationally representative data and a set of matching estimators to estimate the average effect of Catholic schooling and the extent to which the effect varies across educational markets. When we use public school students nationwide or within the same county to provide a counterfactual estimate of how Catholic school students would have performed in public schools, we find strong evidence indicating that Catholic elementary schools are less successful at teaching math skills than public schools (Catholic school students are 3–4 months behind public school students by third and fifth grade), but no more or less successful at teaching reading skills. Moreover, unlike prior research, we find no consistent evidence that the effects of Catholic schooling vary substantially by race or urbanicity, though our power to detect such differences is weak.     

Single-sex Classes and Equal Opportunities for Girls and Boys: Perspectives through time from a mixed comprehensive school in England

The recent concern with the apparent 'under-achievement' of boys in England's comprehensive schools has led schools to review the potential of single-sex classes as a means of improving performance. This paper reviews the arguments for such a strategy, in the context of one school where such an approach has underpinned the organisation of the school through the last three decades. We examine the rationale behind the original decision to implement single-sex teaching, consider the evolution of the curriculum through time, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this mode of organisation from the varying perspectives of parents, students and teachers. We consider whether the strategy has contributed to an improvement in the achievement levels of girls, and discuss the extent to which single-sex teaching has the potential to have a positive impact in raising boys' performance. In reviewing the evidence, we conclude that the single-sex mode of teaching in the school is effective in contributing to high achievement levels, in many contexts providing a conducive and supportive environment for students' learning. We suggest that such groupings may offer more advantages for girls than for boys; we argue that the potential of the system will only be fully realised when it is explicitly recognised that girls and boys do respond differently, in certain contexts, to different teaching-learning styles.     

Girls’ and Boys’ Academic Self-Concept in Science in Single-Sex and Coeducational Classes

Recently, single-sex classes within public coeducational schools have proliferated across the USA; yet, we still know little about whether and how single-sex science classes influence adolescents’ attitude and affect toward science. This exploratory study expands upon our current understanding by investigating the extent in which female and male students’ enrollment in either single-sex or coeducational science classrooms may influence their academic self-concept in science. Utilizing a quasi-experimental research design, findings suggest that being enrolled in single-sex science classrooms influence how students in this study perceive their abilities to perform and learn in science, particularly for females in single-sex science classrooms.     

美国中小学单性学校的立法沿革与新进展

美国的单性教育一直是一个值得争议的问题.美国联邦政府最高法院有多次机会可以禁止各州开办单性公立学校,但终未实施,只是对个别实施单性教育的公立学校进行审查,看它(们)是否给男生和女生提供了同等的教育机会.2004年3月联邦教育部颁布了"接受政府资助的非歧视性别分类教育项目或活动建议条款",为单性教育打开方便之门.美国现行的单性教育分为全单性教育和部分单性教育两种类型.     

Attitudes and achievement of Bruneian science students

The aim of this study was to evaluate attitudes towards and achievement in science of Form 3 students studying in single-sex and coeducational schools in Brunei. The results demonstrated significant differences in attitudes towards and achievement in science of male and female students in single-sex schools and students in coeducational schools. These differences were at moderate level. In single-sex schools, the girls achieved moderately better in science than the boys despite their attitudes were only marginally better than the boys. However, there were no gender differences in attitudes towards and achievement in science of students in coeducational schools. The attitudes towards and achievement in science of girls in single-sex schools were moderately better than those of girls in coeducational schools. Whereas the attitudes towards and achievement in science of boys in single-sex schools were only marginally better than the boys in coeducational schools. However, further research to investigate (a) if these differences are repeated at other levels as well as in other subjects, and (b) the extent to which school type contributed towards these differences is recommended.     

Girls in the Education Market: Choice,competition and complexity

ABSTRACT This paper considers the role of girls' schools in the UK education market and, concomitantly, the positioning and 'value' of girls in the education market place. Themarketing and public presentations of two schools are examined and the messages and impressions presented to parents are analysed. The relationships of these schools to their 'competitors' are also explored. These are set against the 'choices' and choice-making of a sample of local parents considering the possibility of single-sex schooling for their daughters. It is argued that the current conditions of competition in the UK education market offer some advantages to girls but that these advantages have to be set against the continuing contradictions and oppressions of single-sex schooling.     

Coeducation and Gender Identity Formation: A comparative analysis of secondary schools in Belgium

Present analysis focuses on the way girls and boys perceive their gender identity in mixed or single-sex schools. Use was made of data concerning 6427 third-year pupils from 25 coeducational and 43 single-sex (21 girls and 22 boys schools) academically oriented secondary schools in Belgium. A multilevel analysis (Hierarchical Linear Modeling) was performed controlling for parental socioeconomic status (SES), academic performance, curriculum enrolment, parental support and school mean SES. It was mainly found that coeducational school girls not only tend to identify themselves more strongly in terms of feminine traits than single-sex school girls, but also in terms of masculine traits, even though their classroom behaviour appears to be much more inhibited.     

Selective retention bonuses for highly effective teachers in high poverty schools: Evidence from Tennessee

Research has established that racially isolated schools with high concentrations of low-income students disproportionately struggle to recruit and retain highly effective teachers, limiting disadvantaged students’ exposure to high-quality instruction and driving institutional and community instability. This study estimates the effect of selective retention bonuses (SRB) for highly effective teachers on low-performing, high poverty schools’ ability to elevate student performance by increasing access to effective instruction. The theory of action behind the bonus program is simple: SRBs result in greater numbers of highly effective teachers at participating schools, who subsequently drive larger student gains than the teachers who would otherwise fill their positions. To examine whether students in high poverty schools benefit from retention of highly effective teachers, we use differences in eligibility for schools to offer bonuses and the discrete timing of the program in a matched sample, difference-in-differences framework. Results indicate that schools who offered SRBs saw greater test score gains in subsequent years, especially on state reading exams.     

Comparing teaching practices,teacher content knowledge and pay in Punjab

This study utilises a unique school based survey of public, private and Public Partnership Programme (PPP) schools in Punjab, Pakistan to identify the correlates of: teacher behaviour in the classroom, teacher content knowledge mastery, and teacher pay. The study finds that private school teachers are associated with lower classroom observation scores than public school teachers, and both private and PPP school teachers are less likely to exhibit content knowledge mastery in Urdu than public school teachers (however, this is not the case for math and English). Public school teachers recruited after the introduction of test-based teacher recruitment are 30 percentage points more likely to demonstrate math content knowledge mastery than teachers recruited prior to test-based recruitment. The study also finds evidence of a pay gap between male and female teachers in both public and PPP schools after controlling for other characteristics. Teachers’ math content knowledge scores were found to be statistically significant correlates of teacher pay for private school teachers, but not for PPP or public school teachers. For female PPP school teachers, having higher academic qualifications is associated with higher wages however, this is not the case for male teachers in these schools.     

The Catholic school advantage and common school effect examined: a comparison between Muslim immigrant and native pupils in Flanders

This study investigates the impact of Catholic schooling on academic achievement of native Belgian and Muslim immigrant pupils. The distinctive characteristics of Catholic schools in Belgium (Flanders) form an exceptionally suitable context to study this. Multilevel latent growth curve analyses are conducted with data from approximately 5,000 pupils across 200 primary schools. No support was found for the Catholic school advantage hypothesis as the overall achievement growth for math and reading was not significantly better in Catholic schools than in public schools. Likewise, no evidence was found for the so-called “common school effect” hypothesis: The learning growth of Muslim pupils was not significantly better in Catholic schools. In fact, the initial achievement gap was found to be higher in Catholic schools than in public schools. Implications of these findings are discussed.