By Celina Yin

Did you know that girls do better in schools without boys? A new study shows that girls are more likely to get good grades, General Certificate of Secondary Education(GCSE)s, and better education in a single-sex school than a school with all genders.

A research looked at the scores of every girl in a single-sex school in a state for two years, 2005-2007. Grammar schools weren’t included. Out of the 71,286 girls who got their GCSEs in single-sex schools over the three-year period, in average all did better than expected on the end of the Scholastic Assesment Test(SAT)s. Out of the 647,942 who took their exams in mixed-gender schools, 20% did worse than average. Sadly, girls’ private schools have decreased since the 1970s and now parents demand more co-ed schools. Only 221,000 girls are taught in state single sex secondaries out of a total school population in the state of around 3.5 million students.

Sue Dunford, headteacher of Southfield School for Girls in Kettering said “It’s a question of confidence in the way girls develop. It’s cool to be very good at anything in a girls school – maths, sciences or physics. No one will ask why you’re doing a boys’ subject. Girls who lack confidence can thrive more in girls-only schools. We don’t have boys competing and distracting, so girls can really go for it.” Alice Sullivan, a researcher at the Institute of Education, University of London added that “It is very interesting that girls seem to be making more progress at single-sex schools. It does support a body of research evidence that girls do better in single-sex environments.”

Janette Wallis, editor of the Good Schools Guide, said: “A lot of parents will look at the benefits of co-ed schools, like the fact that girls and boys are educated side-by-side, preparing them for the world of work and life. But to disregard this evidence would be a mistake. We never expected to see such a difference.”

SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2009/mar/18/secondary-schools-girls-gcse-results