School Type and the Education of Girls: Co-ed or Girls Only?

In New Zealand, single-sex public schools are held in greater esteem by the community. Because single-sex public schools are more popular than coeducational public schools, the single-sex schools in larger population areas have selective admission policies to screen the large number of applicants. This paper argues that single-sex schools end up with a more socially exclusive group of pupils, whose ability levels are considerably higher than for pupils at coeducational schools. It presents findings of a study that first compared the achievement levels of girls to those of boys in a sample of New Zealand schools. The study also compared the achievement levels of girls in all-female schools with those of girls in coeducational schools after proper controls had been exercised for ability and social and cultural differences between the pupil populations of the different schools. Data from the "Progress at School" Project, a longitudinal study of over 5,000 pupils in 37 secondary schools in New Zealand, were analyzed. The data show that when adequate control is exercised for the different ability levels and the social and ethnic mix of the two types of school, the initial significant differences in academic achievement disappear. Thus the popular belief that girls will do better academically at single-sex schools is not sustained by the data. School type does not appear to be an important factor in attempts to improve the performance levels of girls in mathematics and science. Finally, the analysis did not consider such variables as self-concept, dropout rates, and social maturity. Nine tables are included. (Contains 31 references.) (LMI)