By Serena Solomon of RNZ

Dr Michael Johnston won’t decide on whether his 11-year-old daughter will attend a co-ed or single-gender secondary school, despite being a senior education fellow at the New Zealand Initiative.

His daughter will make that decision herself, and it will probably be co-ed.

“Even knowing what I know about academic outcomes,” Johnston said of the data that typically points to higher test scores for boys and girls in single-gender schools, “I’m not going to send her to a girls’ school because she would be miserable. She very much enjoys the company of boys. Her best friend is a boy.”

It’s that time of year when many parents and students are weighing up where to go for the next phase of schooling. For some, a choice between single-gender or co-ed will be a deciding factor. However, that should be just one of many elements to consider when picking a school, according to education experts.

“It is going to come down to what is right for each child and student and being led by what they want and their preference,” said Dr Karen Harris, a senior lecturer in educational psychology at Massey University.

She has reflected with her step-children – now 17 and 21 – on their choice of secondary schools. One picked single-gender and the other co-ed and “they both feel they would have done equally well in either of the other types of school”, said Harris.

Yes, single sex schools do better academically (generally)

When Dr Tanya Evans from the mathematics department at the University of Auckland crunched the results of 5900 students, it was clear those in single-gender schools did better in maths and science than those at co-ed schools.

It’s in line with international research that shows single-sex schools typically churn out better academic results.

Evans also found single-sex schools made the biggest difference for students from high equality index areas (formerly referred to as low decile areas).

Research in New Zealand and overseas shows single-sex schools typically churn out better academic results. Photo / RNZ / Richard Tindiller

“In fact, the girls in that lower socioeconomic band performed significantly better than anyone else, better than boys in same-sex schools in low decile areas and boys in co-ed settings,” said Evans, adding the caveat that it was a small sample size of two schools.

A study Johnston completed in 2018 showed Māori and Pacifica boys in high equality index areas do better at single-gender schools than their counterparts in co-ed schools.

However, the question remains, why? Is it the segregation of gender? Does it still come down to the individual school’s culture and leadership? Are students who are already doing well gravitating to single-gender schools, thus skewing the data?

“I can’t prove it because there has been no research that I’m aware of into the reasons for this difference,” said Johnston, of the study’s findings, “but my sense is that it’s something about the cultures of the schools.”

Culture and leadership at the school

Evans is a personal fan of single-gender schools, but it isn’t because of the data. It is through her own experience after her now 20-year-old daughter picked a single-gender school over co-ed options.

The school’s principal constantly encouraged the female students to aspire to professions in STEM – science, technology, engineering and maths – where women are historically underrepresented. If anything, it was easier to tailor a specific message to a smaller cohort of students.

“’Break the glass ceiling. Be brave,’ and it was all these messages of empowerment for women to participate in STEM fields, and after five years, I guess it has an impact,” said Evans, whose daughter is now studying science and law at university.

Harris from Massey University suggested meeting a potential school’s principal, looking at “the culture, the ethos, the values of the school”, and putting that ahead of whether it is single-sex or co-ed.

Friendship

Professor Karen Nairn from the University of Otago’s College of Education spent years teaching in all manner of schools – single-gender boys, single-gender girls and co-ed.

She was most impressed by the co-ed students because of how girls and boys related to each other. “There was a much more well-rounded set of interactions,” Nairn said. “Girls and boys could be friends without it being understood as some romantic relationship.

“They’re heading into a work world that is co-ed, into a university world that’s co-ed and I would much rather them experience high school in a co-ed environment.”

Research from University of Canterbury published in 1991 (so making it “dated”, but still interesting, said Nairn) showed students from single-sex schools didn’t perform as well in their first year of university as those from co-ed schools. “Part of the idea is that these students are encountering a co-ed environment for the first time,” said Nairn.

Because of her teaching experience, Nairn encouraged her own children to attend a co-ed school. It’s a decision the family remains happy with.

What makes your kid happy?

Sport. Drama. Visual arts. Consider the subjects outside of maths, science and literacy that make your child feel grounded.

“It’s way more important in terms of what’s going to make your child feel happy at school,” said Harris, “because that is what is going to impact on their progress.”

- RNZ