The Efficacy of Single-Sex Education: Testing for Selection and Peer Quality Effects

Abstract

To address selection and peer quality effects in tests of the efficacy of single-sex schools, the achievement of girls attending a public single-sex middle school in the Southwest United States (N=121) was compared to that of (a) girls who applied but were not admitted to the same school (N=229) and (b) girls who applied to and attended a coeducational magnet school (N=134). Achievement scores were collected over 3 years for the ethnically diverse participants (41 African Americans, 27 Asian Americans, 163 European Americans, 251 Latinos, and two Native Americans). After controlling for selection and peer quality effects, there was no significant effect of the gender composition of schools on achievement. Implications for educational policy are discussed.

Controlling for Prior Attainment Reduces the Positive Influence that Single-Gender Classroom Initiatives Exert on High School Students’ Scholastic Achievements

“…These findings therefore demonstrate how the observed advantages of single-gender educational initiatives are reduced greatly when accounting for students previous scholastic performance. They also provide empirical support for the notion that much of the reported success of gendersegregated education may be attributable to selection effects (Hayes et al 2011;, with this methodological issue distorting the interpretations of research in this area.…”

“…The most pertinent issue is that many singlegender schools employ selective admissions procedures whereby students are recruited based on their previous ability and socio-economic background (Hayes et al 2011;Marsh 1989;. However, many studies do not control for selection effects within their analyses (cf.…”

“…Pahlke et al 2014 for a meta-analysis). This greatly undermines the conclusions that can be drawn from research investigating the possible impact that single-gender schooling may have on educational outcomes because students who attend these schools may differ from those attending co-educational schools in important ways (Hayes et al 2011). Demonstrating the significance of this problem, Pahlke et al (2014) conducted a meta-analysis and found that studies which did not control for students' previous attainment showed a moderate positive effect of single-gender schooling for mathematics.…”

Probability Values and Human Values in Evaluating Single-Sex Education

“…In Part 1, Hayes et al (2011) report analyses testing whether the higher academic performance of girls attending a single-sex (rather than coeducational) school could be attributed to gender composition or, instead, might be explained by other factors. Their findings support the latter alternative: Once selection biases and peer quality effects were taken into account, gender composition of the school did not predict an achievement advantage for the single-sex school.…”

“…A number of articles in the Sex Roles special issue raise similar points about advantaged demographic profiles of children who choose (or are selected) to attend single-sex public school options over children who remain in other publicschool settings (see, for example, Hayes et al 2011;Nagengast et al 2013;Signorella et al 2013). In addition to the within-student association between better entry academic skills and later achievement, these demographic differences also mean that there are different peer cultures.…”