S.C. Survey Shows Single Gender Education Improves Student Performance

The South Carolina Department of Education released a report Tuesday, which summarized the results of surveys given to students, parents and teachers participating in single sex public education.

According to the annual report,

Roughly 7,000 students, 1,120 parents, and 760 teachers from 119 different elementary, middle, and high schools around the state completed the surveys. Some of these schools started with single-gender classes in August 2009, while others have had greater experience with them.

Reuters reports the state has the highest number of schools offering single sex classes in the nation.

The surveys asked questions regarding students' self-confidence, participation in class and enjoyment of schoolwork.

Overall, results were positive toward the impact of single gender classes.

Some results from the report:

• 65 percent of students indicated that the classes increased their academic success and attitudes toward learning.
• 75 percent of students said that the classes improved their self-confidence.
• 80 percent of parents said that single sex classes were a factor in improving their childrens' performance in school.

Educators also felt that they saw improvements in the classroom because of single gender classes:

Teachers of female students gave "increase" answers at a higher percentage level (response averages ranging from 84 to 97 percent) than teachers of males averages ranging from 71 to 89 percent).

Comments

[McHale Ann Haiman]

05:38 AM on 12/06/2010

I guess if it works, but maybe these students already excelled. I guess there isn't the distraction of the opposite sex, just like when there are drug sniffing dogs, any dogs of the opposite gender are not allowed around.

[Quincy Miller]

01:24 AM on 12/04/2010

My brother-in-law teaches math at an at-risk high school here in Texas that just went to single sex classrooms. He swears by it. I think it's great. Whatever works.

[MarcEdward]

10:55 AM on 12/02/2010

If it works, do it.

[omg wtf lol bbq]

01:07 AM on 12/02/2010

I'd like to see their SAT and ACT scores compared to students in mixed-gender classes from across America. I'm willing to bet that these students scores are probably about the same average as everyone else.

[been2there]

09:20 PM on 12/01/2010

Separate but equal is always a lie. Separate is inherently unequal, and we should not allow sex apartheid to creep into schools.
BTW, why are so many people reluctant to believe that boys can learn to behave well?

[MarcEdward]

11:00 AM on 12/02/2010

"why are so many people reluctant to believe that boys can learn to behave well?"

I have sons, and I know full well that girls (especially pre-high school) are more mature and easier to handle than boys. A problem we had with one teacher is that she expected boys to behave like girls. During recess, the boys would find places to hide so they could play the "punching game" - punching each other to see how much it hurt. It was perfectly harmless (a self selecting group of masochists I guess) but the teacher was concerned about it. Boys don't necessarily not behave, they just don't behave like girls.

"Separate but equal is always a lie."

In principle you are correct, but in practice I am not so sure. Around here (Chapel Hill) many African American students opt to go to the Durham School district (not nearly as highly rated as Chapel Hill) because they are more comfortable in African American majority schools with African American teachers. I'm not saying integration is a failure, but if some minorities want to be segregated, how do you stand in their way? If they are more comfortable, won't they do better? I don't know, but I don't think it's a simple answer.

[Acert]

08:30 PM on 12/02/2010

These "studies" are often performed after the school districts assign the best teachers and the best students tot he single-sex classrooms.

[VA Jill]

06:57 PM on 12/01/2010

Studies have shown that one of the benefits of single-sex education for girls is that they develop much more self-confidence and are able to be more assertive. Those are certainly qualities that will do them well in the world. And kids don't spend their entire waking lives in school; they have plenty of opportunities to interact with the other "half the human race" outside of school. Your argument is specious at best. And if you didn't learn anything in schoolbooks that was useful in real life, shthar, you must be someone who doesn't work, doesn't read, doesn't need to budget or cook, or any number of things. Pitiful.

[shthar]

06:28 PM on 12/01/2010

So what?

What did you ever learn in schoolbooks that was useful in real life?

What you learn is how to deal with people. And these kids have not learned how to deal with half of the human race.

Howbout a study on these kids AFTER they go into the real world?

[bill01370]

02:27 AM on 12/03/2010

I teach in an all-girls school, and the studies of which I'm aware show that alumnae overwhelmingly feel the experience benefited them both academically and socially. Another study showed that, while graduates of all-girls schools do not have higher self-esteem than do female graduates of coed schools, the source of their self-esteem differs. Graduates of all-girls schools are more likely to determine their self-esteem based on their own internal standards whereas female graduates of coed schools are more likely to look outside themselves to others to judge them.