Single-sex+4

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Summary/Direct Quote
 The continuing controversy over **//single//**-gender education LAST FALL THERE WAS an energetic discussion on the Care About Girls listserv concerning the pros and cons of **//single//** gender schools, which have become far more popular in the last decade. Thanks in part to the work of Carol Gilligan and the AAUW in pointing out how adolescent girls are at risk, applications at girls' schools have increased a dramatic 69 percent in Manhattan since 1991, the New York Times reported last year, with applications going up significantly at schools outside New York as well. Lisa kicked off the listserv conversation by asking for input on whether to enroll her 5-year-old daughter in an all-girls school or a coeducational one. The result? An overwhelmingly enthusiastic response in favor of **//single//**-**//sex//** schools. Greta wrote to praise the "superior education" she'd received at a secular all-girls school, and the far weaker one she found when she transferred in her junior year to a public school. A bank officer at 22, Greta wrote that she now realizes "a **//single//**-**//sex//** environment afforded me the confidence to try anything and the ignorance of sexual biases. I forged ahead without fear." Alison, a veteran of 13 years of Manhattan all-girls schools, wrote to say she'd received a "fabulous education." Now enrolled in an elite medical school, she's certain that her superior grounding in science and math helped get her there. But despite being a "huge fan of **//single//**-**//sex//** education," she cautioned parents that such settings are not "guaranteed to teach self-confidence and feminist ideals, any more than coed schools are certain to turn out shy, self-effacing young women." She suggested that listserv members come up with an equity index, the score of which would be determined by a list of questions they could pose to school administrators concerning a school's gender equity. Another listserv member, Jennifer, writes that despite having always attended coed schools, she remained an "outspoken character, thanks to parents who always taught me to question things and to boldly state my opinion." Don't underestimate the power of parents to help their girls remain unafraid to speak out, she reminded listserv members. Finally, Susannah-while admitting that her thoughts were based mostly on a few personal examples-pointed out that her friends who had attended all-girl schools were actually "more gendered in their outlook, more likely to view boys in superficial and stereotypical terms, and to view dating and relationships the same way" As interesting as this anecdotal evidence might be, at some point it helps to look at actual research. Just what do the studies say about the superiority of a **//single//**-**//sex//** education? Well, as usual, it depends on whose studies you're looking at. The AAUW's 1998 report, Separated by **//Sex//**: A Critical Look at **//Single//**-**//Sex//** Education for Girls, challenged the notion that **//single//**-**//sex//** education is always better for girls. Their findings, gleaned from an extensive literature review and a roundtable of the country's foremost researchers in the area, concluded that "separating by **//sex//** is not the solution to gender inequity in education," according to Maggie Ford, AAUW Educational Foundation president. To summarize their findings--discussed at far greater length in their 95-page report--the AAUW found the following: Although the researchers conceded that **//single//**-**//sex//** schools often had more girls enrolled in math and science **//classes//**, more girls taking academic risks, and more girls confident in their academic competence, they weren't certain whether those advantages derived from factors unique to **//single//**-**//sex//** programs or from factors common to all good schools (such as small **//classes//**, an intense academic curriculum, and a disciplined environment). Not surprisingly, the National Coalition of Girls' Schools has come to a different conclusion. In its more recent report, issued in January, the organization takes issue with how the media has reported the topic. The AAUW's Separated by **//Sex//** report, they say, has been particularly misinterpreted, spun by the media as a negative commentary on girls' schools when it is actually anything but that. The NCGS argues that "largely absent from the debate has been hard, scientific data assessing the defining characteristics of girls' schools," which the group says includes raising girls' academic achievement, increasing the numbers of females in science and math **//classes//**, benefiting female career aspirations, and leading to more positive **//sex//**-role attitudes and self-esteem. Also absent from the debate, the NCGS argues, have been the actual voices of the girls' school graduates themselves. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">The NCGS set out to rectify that lapse in its report, Achievement, Leadership & Success: A Report on Educational, Professional, and Life Outcomes at Girls' Schools in the United States. In a six-page survey, the group polled more than 4,000 alumni from the **//classes//** of 1983, 1987, 1991, and 1995 at 64 NCGS schools. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">The results were resoundingly positive. Most alumni (85 percent) rated their schools as excellent or very good, and 88 percent would repeat the experience. Three-fourths agreed that girls' schools are more relevant to young women's personal and social needs; while 90 percent said such schools were more relevant to their academic needs. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Nearly three-fourths of the alumni felt they were better prepared for college than were their counterparts from coed high schools, while 85 percent believed they were better prepared academically. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Further, girls' school alumni enter college with higher test scores and once there, major in science and math at a higher rate than females or males nationwide, the NCGS report found. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Finally, once they enter the work world, NCGS graduates are overwhelmingly found as leaders at work and in their communities, with more of them (78 percent versus 62 percent nationwide) pursuing managerial and professional fields, and far more volunteering in community organizations (86 percent versus 39 percent of adults nationwide). Fully 80 percent held leadership positions, especially in college and in the workplace. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">The advantages sound pretty convincing, although naturally each family has to balance these advantages with the availability and cost of such schools in their own community, as well as their daughters' opinions on the subject. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Studies are important, of course, but perhaps the words of Tony-award winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein (The Heidi Chronicles, The Sisters Rosensweig) might make a bigger impression on the girl in your life. After writing in the New York Times that girls' school students strike her as "not only fearless but also genuinely interested in one another," and that "the security of a **//single//**-**//sex//** environment gives young women the confidence to create their own image instead of buying into a cookie cutter world," Wasserstein, a graduate of a **//single//**-**//sex//** high school and college, concludes with this resounding line: "I truly believe the reason I have enough confidence in my own voice to write or even raise my daughter is because I went to girls' schools." <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">12729056041272905604 <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">By Lynette Lamb
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> There is no evidence in general that **//single//**-**//sex//** education works or is better for girls than coeducation.
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> When elements of a good education are present, girls and boys succeed. Elements include small **//classes//** and schools, equitable teaching practices, and focused academic curriculum.
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> Some kinds of **//single//**-**//sex//** programs produce positive results for some students, including a preference for math and science among girls. While girls' achievement has improved in some **//single//**-**//sex//** schools, there is no significant improvement in girls' achievement in **//single//**-**//sex//** **//classes//**.
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> There is no escape from sexism in **//single//**-**//sex//** schools and **//classes//**.
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> **//Single//**-**//sex//** **//classes//** in particular disrupt the coeducational public school environment.

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Connected Topics/Uses
Talks about how sexism happens because the genders are clumped together.