Girls thrive in single-sex schools, but boys do not. It is a common assumption and new research from London’s Institute of Education (IoE) suggests, to a certain extent, that it is true. Researchers have found that girls who go to girls’ schools will later earn more than those from mixed schools — partly because they are less likely to make gendered decisions about their studies and are, therefore, more likely to take maths and science subjects. But the research also found social problems in boys-only schools. ‘Single-sex education seems to have a negative social impact for boys and a positive academic impact for girls,” says Alice Sullivan, the IoE researcher behind the report.
Parents had worked this out long before the research proved it: they want their daughters to go to girls’ schools and their sons to go to mixed schools. In much of the United Kingdom, there has been a 40-year drift towards mixed-sex education in which boys’ schools have been replaced with co-educational schools far more readily than girls’ schools have. In some areas of the UK, this has created a quiet phenomenon in which girls are outnumbered by boys in some mixed schools by three to one.
Overall, in the state sector, 13% of girls now go to girls’ schools and 10% of boys attend boys’ schools; within mixed schools, 51% are boys. But when you drill down into some inner-city areas, the gender balance is tipped. In outer London, 33% of girls attend girls’ schools, and 24% of boys attend boys’ schools. In co-educational schools, 53% of students are boys. But in inner London, the majority of girls (52%) attend girls’ schools, and just 27% of boys attend boys’ schools. And 59% of students in mixed schools are boys.
Sullivan says the area of boy-dominated mixed schools has not been well researched. ‘It’s the side-effect of the parental choice agenda: parents want single-sex schools for their girls, but not their boys. It’s one of those clear incidences when individuals’ choices don’t add up to a socially acceptable outcome.”
She adds: ‘Given that boys tend to have more discipline problems and lower academic attainment, my guess is that those schools would have more problems than schools that are closer to 50-50. The question is, do these schools have particular problems of sexual harassment and bullying?”
A study carried out last year in Israel suggests that a large proportion of boys in a class worsens the outcome for both the girls and boys.
The researchers, Victor Lavy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Analía Schlosser of Princeton University, studied results from eight cohorts in 280 Israeli high schools, some 425 138 students. No matter which way they measured it, they found that the higher the proportion of girls in a class, the better the results for everyone.
‘The positive female peer effect is related to a lower level of classroom disruption and violence, improved inter-student and student-teacher relationships, as well as to an increase in students’ overall satisfaction with their school,” they wrote.
Diana Leonard, head of the centre for research and education on gender at the IoE, has conducted separate research, which found that boys are more likely to be excluded for a significant amount of time if they go to single-sex, rather than mixed schools; the research found the same is not true for girls.
‘Certain boys dominate the classrooms in mixed situations. The sheer number of boys in some schools must make it difficult. Girls take protective measures — they sit together, separately. The more boys you have, the more equipment and teacher time they take up,” she says.
‘People argue for the civilising effects of girls. The reason there is more violence in boys’ schools is because boys have a code of honour and don’t tell when there is trouble brewing. Girls will talk to staff more. But I would think it’s also quite hard on the non-aggressive boys if there are more boys.”
All of this affects parents’ choices, she says. ‘Boys’ schools are difficult places, and that’s why parents and local authorities don’t like them. We have got the paradox that we want mixed schools because they are better for boys and behaviourally easier. But single-sex schools encourage girls to have ambition and higher self-esteem, and they do that not just for middle-class girls but for girls from lower socioeconomic and disturbed backgrounds. It seems a pity to lose that for the girls and throw them into the lions’ den.”
Proof of the influence of parental choice is evident in the independent sector. There are more than 200 girls-only private schools and fewer than 150 boys-only. There are 110 schools that have 40% to 50% boys, and 374 with 50% to 60% boys.
Some parents are beginning to complain about the gender imbalance in certain state schools. In Liverpool, councillors have been receiving complaints for several years. Councillor Paul Clein says they are trying to persuade mixed schools to offer single-sex teaching. ‘I’m not talking about home economics, but, for a trial, maybe maths and English and one or two other subjects, to see if it makes any difference,” he says. ‘When they are in mixed classes, boys show off to the girls. That is a factor. The perception is that if you separated those boys out it may help.”
Other schools are trying different methods to support female pupils in male-dominated schools. Acland Burghley, a north London secondary with 64% boys on its roll, runs a ‘girls’ den” at lunchtimes to give the female students a space to meet away from the boys. The headteacher, Michael Shew, says the den has become less popular as students have become more confident.
When Shew arrived at the school, it was noticed that girls’ results were not as good as they should be. He employed a team of inspectors to look at the way that female students were working in class. The move led to a series of strategies to deal with the gender imbalance. When it looks as though the number of girls in tutor groups is going to dip below eight, for example, boys-only tutor groups have been set up — with permission from parents. After advice from the inspectors, new teaching styles were introduced that made teachers aware of the gender dynamics in the classroom so they could better respond to all pupils.
Up the road in Haringey, at Highgate Wood School, the tide is turning a little. There used to be three boys for every two girls, but the figures are starting to shift in the other direction. This school, too, has some girls-only classes, in which they talk about assertiveness and ‘sexual bullying”, headteacher Patrick Cozier says. The question of balance is something the school is very aware of when recruiting students, he adds.
Many parents of girls in the area opt first for the local girls’ school, so Highgate Wood must fight hard to attract girls at all. At parents’ evenings, Cozier presents the schools’ results and highlights the success of the girls and how well they do there, in a bid to try to attract more; it is also highlighted in the school’s literature. But it is a double-edged sword, he says. ‘It’s quite dangerous if you highlight the brilliant successes of the girls, because parents of boys may be put off. I’m careful not to go overboard.”
He says the girl-boy ratio is most pronounced in the lower ability sets for maths. These are almost entirely boy-only classes. In fact, the minority status of girls in the school is not the immediate concern for teachers. ‘The issue we have — like many other schools — is that the girls vastly outperform boys. The focus of the teachers can often be on helping the boys catch up,” says Cozier.
Some experts say the place of girls in such schools is often overlooked, as they are essentially employed as a levelling factor for difficult teenage boys. Gus John, visiting professor of education at Strathcylde University and an expert in inner-city and black education, says there could be a penalty being paid by girls in schools where they are outnumbered.
‘Anecdotally, I have observed that it makes for patchy results,” he says. ‘Boys often have a poor culture of learning — an anti-academic environment. Some girls would resist that and do well. Some boys would benefit from those girls being around and do well. But for a section of both the boys and girls, there is a lowering of aspirations and therefore of performance.”
The Israeli research found this, too. The real boost in results came when girls significantly outnumber boys; the researchers did not find a case for mixed schools per se, and certainly not when the girls are in the minority. Like competing siblings, the debate can come down to whom you prioritise: the girls or the boys. Boys stand to benefit from girls being in their classes, but girls can lose out. Or, as the researchers put it: ‘The gain for females from school or classroom gender segregation is offset by the loss for males.” —