Advantages Of Single-Sex Education

Outline for Research Paper

Introduction

Imagine a hard working student sitting in a classroom where the opposite gender is a source of distraction. The teaching style isn’t tailored to fit his or her needs, which prevents the student’s academic performance from being at it’s best. Studies show that single-sex schools and classrooms benefit both male and female students by helping both sexes to attain higher levels of achievement.

Single-sex education has long been provided in educational institutions such as religious, private, and preparatory schools in a diverse range of situations, including individual classes, programs after school, required programs, voluntary programs, and programs to remedy gender inequities and encourage cultural pride

Male and female students have different needs, abilities, and interests. For example, girls use overt methods, while boys use covert methods (Cable and Spradlin 4). Coeducational classes cannot be gender neutral due to the fact that teachers tend to only accommodate the learning style of one gender or the other.

According to Leonard Sax, founder and executive director of the National Association for Single-Sex Public Education (NASSPE), girls thrive in noncompetitive, collaborative learning environments, while boys are more motivated by competition. Girls prefer short stories and novels, while boys would rather read factual accounts of real events or illustrated descriptions of how things work (Cable and Spradlin 4).

Single-sex school environments resolve the differences between the learning styles of male and female students because teachers are able to focus on learning-styles that will benefit their students.

Another advantage of single-sex schools and classroom is that they eliminate the opposite gender distractions that interfere with

Without the need to be confronted on a daily basis with male-female socialization issues, students can pursue their studies, classroom discussions, and school activities.

In addition, studies have shown that after the change to single-sex education, many schools have found that students ' scores have risen.

At Stetson University, researchers compared the test scores of one single-sex class and one coeducational class at Woodward Avenue Elementary School in Florida. After the fourth year of the study in January 2008, 55 percent of boys in coed classrooms scored proficient on the FCAT compared with 85 percent of boys in the all boys classes (Cable and Spradlin 5).

A single-sex environment has the capability to improve students’ academic career and maximize intellectual performance.

Furthermore, Heather McRae, principal of Diocesan School for Girls, said NCEA results showed single-sex girls ' schools gave Kiwi teens the best chance at top academic results. “In 2014, 55.9 percent of those who completed NCEA level one at the decile ten school gained an excellence endorsement, compared to the national average of 17.7 percent. Meanwhile, 34.2 percent of girls from all decile ten single-sex schools gained excellence at level one, compared to 24.1 percent of girls at coed schools of the same decile”