Report finds benefits to attending all-girl schools
By Jennifer Carcamo
March 30, 2009 11:59 p.m.
Latoya Raveneau graduated with high honors and received the highest academic achievement award for science upon her final days at Fontbonne Hall Academy, a private all-girl high school in New York.
Now a first-year student at UCLA, she continues her academic success as an art student and said she still enjoys exploring different sciences among her other varied interests.
Raveneau’s successful academic story parallels the findings of a new report that suggests that all-girl high schools generate more successful graduates than their coed counterparts.
The report, released by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, confirms claims by the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools that girls who attend single-sex institutions graduate with more confidence. They also express ample abilities in typically male-oriented fields.
Linda J. Sax, the principal author and researcher of the report, said that one key finding suggests girls who graduate from all-girl schools tend to express more confidence in their math and science abilities in comparison to girls who come from coed schools.
According to the report, 48 percent of girls from single-sex schools claim they are above average in math skills, which varies drastically in comparison to the 37 percent of girls from coed high schools who claim the same.
Sarri Sanchez, a UCLA alumna who now owns her own dance company, attended Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy in La Cañada Flintridge and credits her strong math skills to her school’s teaching methods.
Sanchez said her math skills were one of her most prominent strengths upon graduation. She said her math teacher, who taught her for three out of four years, was “phenomenal” and believed in creating an atmosphere where girls were encouraged to be just as good as boys, especially in stereotypically male-dominated subjects such as math.
Sax also mentioned that girls from all-girl high schools express ample computer and engineering skills upon graduation and stand out among their peers. In fact, 36 percent of girls from single-sex schools claimed they had above-average computer skills, while only 26 percent from coed schools said the same, according to the report.
At Ramona Convent Secondary School, located in Alhambra, the robotics team is entirely run by girls and has competed in national tournaments, said Sister Kathleen Callaway, the president of Ramona.
“Most of the girls on the other teams were rooting and being cheerleaders rather than running the robots,” Callaway said. “But because the boys aren’t here (in our school), the girls just take the lead and manage the robot.”
Callaway said that she loves working at Ramona because she likes the feeling of empowering young women who do not work under the conditions of the “glass ceiling,” but rather always surpass expectations.
“I didn’t really have an understanding of certain job fields being male-dominant,” Sanchez said. “I saw everything as an actual possibility. My high school’s environment gave me that “˜I-can-do-whatever-I-want’ type of thinking.”
Sanchez said that her experience at Flintridge, although stressful, helped her prepare for college. She said that with little attention focused on physical appearance because of her school’s uniform dress code and the fact that there were no boys to serve as a distraction, she was able to focus on school more.
With regard to the “no-boys” issue, Sanchez said that she was both glad and “relieved about not having that added social pressure.”
Callaway said that most girls entering single-sex schools are discouraged by the no-boy policy, but that once they reach their senior year they are glad there were none.
“No girl has ever come back and told us that they were socially inept because they didn’t go to a high school with boys,” Callaway said.
Meg Moulton, the executive director of National Coalition of Girls’ Schools, said that the study reflects what the coalition has been trying to emphasize for the past 20 years. It began in an effort to shine light on the benefits of all-girl schools and has worked directly with researchers such as Sax to help distinguish those beneficial aspects of all-girl high schools.
Moulton said that what she wants to do is make all-girl schools a beneficial option for all students in the private and public sector. Moulton mentioned a recent pilot charter school called Young Women’s Leadership Charter School of Chicago and placed it in one of the most underserved communities to fulfill the needs of at-risk girls. Now, 100 percent of graduates from the institution attend college, Moulton said.
The coalition believes in providing an alternative for girls to pursue a better future by empowering girls to be as successful as possible, Moulton said.
“Girls’ schools take girls seriously and believe in possibility and potential and expecting the best of you ““ even in math, science and engineering,” Moulton said.
Sax said that, although her research is a big step toward developing a better understanding of what all-girl school can provide, she still has to continue doing research on whether or not these characteristics stay intact after transitioning into a coed university. For the most part, girls seem content with their education upon graduation and express their strengths without holding back.
