The Benefits of All-Girls Education

As a parent, one of your most crucial duties is helping your child prepare for the future, and education is an important tool you can employ. While your child’s goals may not yet be clear, you already know that the future begins with the decisions you make today. If you have daughters, we encourage you to consider the advantages of an all-girls school. The relaxed, yet highly academic learning environment is designed to make young women the center of learning, leadership, growth and opportunity.

Without the social pressures found in a co-ed environment, young women thrive. In the classroom Marian girls confidently voice their opinions, ask thought-provoking questions, and embrace new learning experiences and opportunities. Classmates encourage each other to be confident in who they are and discover who they can become. Formal and informal leadership opportunities exist through clubs, student government, athletics, fine arts and campus ministry. 

Research cites many factors for the positive influence of single-gender schools on young women. Here are some of the reasons and the research to consider for your daughter.

Academic Achievement

• Girls who attend single-sex schools outscore their coed counterparts on the SAT by an average of 28-43 points. (Sax, Linda, Ph.D. Women Graduates of Single-Sex and Coeducational High Schools: Differences in their Characteristics and the Transition to College. 2009)

• Girls at single-sex schools surpass their coed peers in reading, writing and science. They also demonstrate higher educational aspirations, spend more time on homework and are more likely to aspire to careers in engineering and science. (Sax, 2009)

Math and Science

• During the middle school years, girls show a decline in both their performance in math and their attitudes towards math. New research suggests that girls’ schools may mitigate the decline when compared with coed schools. (Cerruti, Carlo, Ph. D. Exploring Girls’ Attitudes about Math. 2012)

• Girls’ school grads are six times more likely to consider majoring in math, science, and technology compared to girls who attend coed schools. (Goodman Research Group: The Girls’ School Experience: A Survey of Young Alumnae of Single-Sex Schools. 1999)

Leadership

• Opportunities for girls to learn leadership skills are more plentiful at all-girl schools. All leadership roles at all-girl schools are taken by girls. When girls go to single-sex schools, they stop being the audience and become the players. (Sax, 2009)

• Of girls’ school graduates, 93 percent report they were offered greater leadership opportunities than peers at coed schools and 80 percent have held leadership positions since graduating from high school. (Goodman Research Group, 1999)

Confidence

• All-girls settings seem to provide girls a certain comfort level that helps them develop greater self-confidence and broader interests, especially as they approach adolescence. (Salomone, Rosemary, Ph.D. Same, Different, Equal: Rethinking Single-Sex Schooling. 2003)

• Over 88% of girls’ school students report they are comfortable being themselves at school, which means they are free to focus their energies on their learning. (Holmgren, Richard A., Ph.D. Steeped in Learning: The Student Experience at All-Girls School. 2015)

See for yourself what it’s like to attend an all-girls school. To set up a visit at Marian, click here.