Parents want their daughters to go to single-sex schools, but not
their sons. The result is that 'mixed' schools are often anything
but. Does the imbalance matter? Polly Curtis reports
Tuesday April 10, 2007
The Guardian
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. Assessing the
biggest ever swath of historical data on the issue, researchers 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 country, 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 country, this has created a quiet
phenomenon in which girls are now 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.
Camden in north London now has four girls' secondary schools, and
only one boys' school. In Hackney, east London, there are three
girls' schools and only one for boys. One of the most extreme
imbalances in the co-educational sector occurs in Islington, north
London, where boys make up 71% of the mixed secondary school population.
The same is true in other urban areas. In Liverpool, there are 31
schools, eight of which are girls' schools and five for boys only.
There are three schools in the area with at least 60% boys on the rolls.
"Parents increasingly feel there's a gender imbalance in mixed
schools," says Paul Clein, a councillor in Liverpool. "The anecdotal
feedback we get is that they feel more like boys' schools than mixed
schools. Certainly we've had letters from parents expressing concerns
about this."
Sullivan says that the area of boy-dominated mixed schools has not
been well researched. "Possibly because people haven't noticed that
it's become quite a big issue in some areas," she says. "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."
Little research
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?"
There is no British research addressing these particular questions.
But a study carried out last year in Israel offers some perspective.
It 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. "It also significantly
lessens the teaching fatigue and burn-out feelings of teachers,
though it does not affect their overall satisfaction from work."
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.
Special schools, which are usually far more male-dominated, have
particular problems, she adds. "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 over 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. Clive Dyton, headteacher of the
independent Oratory school in Berkshire, argued recently that boys'
schools were increasingly turning co-educational as schools bowed to
market forces.
Some parents are beginning to complain about the gender imbalance in
certain state schools. In Liverpool, councillors have been receiving
complaints for several years, and Clein says they are now 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. "The perception is that it might improve things for boys and
girls.
"We're asking schools to consider it because we feel that, where
parents do have concerns, it may go some way towards alleviating
those concerns. Their daughters will get an education within a single-
sex environment. 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."
Supporting female pupils
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 main issue for us is that an
average-size tutor group has only got nine girls, instead of 15. That
reduces the chances for friendships groups to form. The girls' den
was to enable girls to meet outside of tutor groups more easily." In
fact, the den has become less popular as students have become more
confident, he says.
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 come in with a brief 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 which
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 PHSE (personal, health and
social education), 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."
Teachers' focus on boys
He says that the girl-boy ratio is most pronounced in the lower
ability sets for maths, which is one of the few subjects the school
sets for. 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 that 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.
"It seems to be that quite often there's a burden placed on girls in
term of humanising those 'damn boys', and it's not often studied in
terms of its impact upon them and their level 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."
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