Single sex schools give boys advantage

Kiwi boys can buck the trend and educationally outperform girls when they attend single sex schools, according to new research.

Research from the long-running Christchurch Health and Development Study at the University of Otago, Christchurch, showed that single-sex schooling might help to reduce the gender gap in educational achievement, producing a situation in which boys had a slight advantage over girls.

The study showed that there were clear differences between the two school types in both the size and direction of the gender gap.

For students who attended single-sex secondary schools, there was a slight tendency for males to outperform females. In contrast, for students who attended coeducational schools, there was a clear tendency for females to outperform males. That pattern continued when students were followed up to the age of 25.

The results held even after accounting for factors associated with attendance at single-sex and coeducational schools, said principal researcher Sheree Gibb.

“These findings are consistent with the argument that attending single-sex schools reduces or mitigates the current gap between boys and girls in educational achievement.”

The effects of single-sex schooling on the gender gap were evident not only in the attainment of secondary school qualifications, but also attendance at university, and in the attainment of bachelors degrees.

She said this study also provided evidence that the effects of single-sex and co-ed schools on the gender gap in educational achievement continued long after students had left school, and even up to the age of 25.

The study suggested that the ways in which schools were organised and structured might have considerable impact on gender gaps in educational achievement. The gaps might be able to be reduced by identifying the particular features of single-sex schooling that were responsible for reducing male disadvantage in achievement.

The study, published in the Australian Journal of Education, was based on comparisons of the educational achievements of more than 900 boys and girls who attended single-sex and coeducational secondary schools in New Zealand.

It examined whether the size and direction of the gender gap in educational achievement was different at single-sex and coeducational secondary schools.

This study was funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand.