A study done showed...

June 2005:
In June 2005, researchers at Cambridge University released results of a four-year study of gender differences in education. The researchers investigated hundreds of different schools, representing a wide variety of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, seeking to identify strategies which improved performance of both girls and boys while narrowing the gender gap between girls and boys. What makes this study really unique is that the researchers did not merely observe and document what they found; they then intervened, and attempted to graft those strategies onto other, less successful schools. A total of 50 schools were involved either as "originator schools" (schools which had successfully improved student performance while narrowing the gender gap) or "partner schools" (less successful schools onto which the "originator" strategies were grafted). One of those strategies was single-sex education. These researchers found that the single-sex classroom format was remarkably effective at boosting boys' performance particularly in English and foreign languages, as well as improving girls' performance in math and science. Here is how Dr. Sax (director of NASSPE) summarized the report in his newsletter to NASSPE e-subscribers (if you would like to be on our e-mailing list, please send us an e-mail):

The full report contains many fascinating insights from students and teachers. Consider this comment from one of the boys in the single-gender class: "We don't just do war poems and Macbeth, we do Wordsworth too. It's a challenge, in a way, which Mr J sets us to show the girls we're capable of doing it, but I couldn't talk about these things if there were girls there!" (p. 85)

"Interviews with [these] 'non-macho' boys suggest that these boys did not feel exposed in single-sex classes. . . .Such boys told us - without exception - that they felt at ease and comfortable, that they did not experience bullying or aggressive behaviour from other boys, and that they were not intimidated by the atmosphere in all-boys' classes." (p. 86)

Returning to grades and test scores: There are three categories of evidence:
1. Major nationwide studies, involving tens or hundreds of thousands of students, in countries such as Australia or the United Kingdom where single-sex public education is widely available;
2. "Before and after" studies, examining a particular school or schools before and after the introduction of single-sex classrooms. Because these studies usually involve no change in resources -- the facilities and student-teacher ratios are the same before and after the switch -- the school serves as its own control;
3. Academic studies, in which investigators study coed and single-sex schools while attempting to control for extraneous variables

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