Girls’ Schools are Best for Girls

New report confirms that girls’ schools are best for girls

Many of you will be familiar with reports of Australian students’ decline against other countries as measured by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OCED) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests.

“PISA assesses the reading, mathematical and scientific literacy of 15-year-old students around the globe. Conducted every three years since 2000, it enables countries to measure and compare how well prepared students nearing the end of compulsory schooling are to use their knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges.

More than 600 000 students in 79 countries and economies took part in PISA 2018, including a nationally representative sample of 14 273 Australian students in 740 schools”. (ACER)

After years of decline across various disciplines, in the 2018 assessment, Australian students failed to exceed the OECD average in maths, while also falling in reading and science.

However, a new report analysing Australian and New Zealand PISA data from 2015 and 2018, shows that unlike their peers in other schools, students from girls’ schools excelled on PISA’s three measures of academic performance in science, mathematics and reading.

Compared to co-educated girls from the top 25% of socioeconomic backgrounds, single-sex girls from the top 25% of socioeconomic backgrounds:

  • Scored up to 10 percentage points higher on academic tests of science, mathematics and reading
  • Scored 10 percentage points higher on measures of scientific enquiry, interpreting scientific evidence, procedural and epistemic science knowledge, physical science and life science
  • Scored up to 7 percentage points higher on literacy measures of reading evaluation and reflection, locating information, and understanding information

And the advantages are not limited to academic achievement. According to the report, girls’ schools not only produce strong academic results, including in vital STEM fields, but they also create learning environments and experiences that shape girls’ self-concept and self-confidence, helping them to make lifelong friends, forge strong support networks, challenge gender stereotypes, and believe in themselves and their future plans.

Students from girls’ schools also reported higher academic aspirations, more adaptive and flexible teachers, stronger feelings of school belonging, and a significantly lower prevalence of bullying.

Given MLC School’s long-standing commitment to the education and empowerment of young women, this data comes as no real surprise and confirms what we know to be the case. It bears out our genuine experience and our long-held belief that girls are best educated in an environment where they are free from gender stereotypes, where learning can be tailored to their needs, where they see female leaders as the norm and consequently grow up believing that if they work hard, they can choose any pathway that they wish.

The statement of the advantages of attending a girls’ school closely mirrors the value of attending MLC School: our girls are indeed fortunate to have flexible and adaptive teachers; and they have an incredible range of opportunities to extend themselves beyond the classroom, free from any considerations of their gender so they can build confidence and resilience. In a year like no other, the work that our School does to ensure our girls are strong, capable and equipped to face adversity has never been more evident.

A more detailed summary of the report can be accessed here.

– Lisa Moloney
Principal