St. Mary's Academy

Advantages of an All-Girls High School

WHY An All-Girls High School?

Whether from seeing the results of our own student body, the success of our graduates, or the significant
research data on the subject of an all girls' education, we know that young women who attend
all girls' schools demonstrate greater academic achievement, score higher on college admissions tests, have more confidence in STEM subject areas, and generally feel more confident and empowered.

 

 

The All-Girls Edge

St. Mary's Academy students graduate with numerous advantages over their peers who choose a co-educational high school. But don't just take it from us - below are 14 proven benefits students receive from attending an all-girls school. Backed by research and data from the National Coalition of Girls Schools, these advantages are felt by every SMA student and alumna.

1. Greater Cultural Competency

Girls’ school graduates help bridge racial and cultural divides.

When compared to coeducated peers, graduated of girls’ school are more likely to:

  • to help promote racial understanding
  • value improving their understanding of other countries and cultures
  • count their desire to understand others with different beliefs as a strength
  • view their ability to work cooperatively with diverse people as strength
—Dr. Tiffani Riggers-Piehl, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Fostering Academic and Social Engagement: An Investigation into the Effects of All-Girls Education in the Transition to University

 

2. Stronger Community Involvement

Girls’ school graduates impact their communities.

When compared to coeducated peers, graduates of girls’ school are more likely to:

  • become involved in environmental programs
  • deem it essential to participate in community social action programs
  • be frequently active in volunteer work
—Dr. Tiffani Riggers-Piehl, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Fostering Academic and Social Engagement: An Investigation into the Effects of All-Girls Education in the Transition to University

 

3. Increased Civic & Political Engagement

Girls’ schools graduate informed, globally minded changemakers.

  • Graduates of girls’ school are committed to civic duty. When compared to their coeducated peers, they are more likely to plan to vote in elections and to value keeping up with political affairs and influencing political structures.
—Dr. Tiffani Riggers-Piehl, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Fostering Academic and Social Engagement: An Investigation into the Effects of All-Girls Education in the Transition to University
  • Girls’ school graduates are 10% more likely than coeducated peers to have a political discussion with friends. They also find it essential to keep current with political issues.
—Dr. Linda Sax, UCLA, Women Graduates of Single-Sex and Coeducational High Schools: Differences in their Characteristics and the Transition to College

 

4. Fostering Her Voice

Girls’ school students strengthen their voice and are encouraged to speak freely without interruption.

  • Academic studies and countless anecdotes make it clear that being interrupted, talked over, shut down or penalized for speaking out is nearly a universal experience for women when they are outnumbered by men.
—The New York Times, “The Universal Phenomenon of Men Interrupting Women.”
  • Girls’ school students are more likely than their female peers at coeducational schools to experience an environment that welcomes an open and safe exchange of ideas. Nearly 87% of girls’ school students feel their opinions are respected at their school compared to only 58% of girls at coeducational schools.
—Dr. Richard A. Holmgren, Allegheny College, Steeped in Learning: The Student Experience at All-Girls Schools
  • Students who attended girls’ schools, compared to coeducated peers, are more likely to publicly communicate their opinion about a cause.
—Dr. Tiffani Riggers-Piehl, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Fostering Academic and Social Engagement: An Investigation into the Effects of All-Girls Education in the Transition to University

 

5. Develops Leadership Skills

Girls’ schools empower students to become bold leaders.

  • At girls’ schools, girls demonstrate great confidence in female leadership and become increasingly interested in leadership positions themselves. Data suggests that girls at coeducational schools actually become less interested in leadership positions with age.
—Dr. Katherine Kinzler, Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago and Visiting Professor in the Department of Psychology at Cornell University
  • Programs at girls’ schools focus on the development of teamwork over other qualities of leadership, while the qualities of confidence, compassion, and resilience also ranked prominently.
—Dr. Nicole Archard, Student Leadership Development in Australian and New Zealand Secondary Girls’ Schools: A Staff Perspective
  • 93% of girls’ school graduates say they were offered greater leadership opportunities than coeducated peers and 80% have held leadership positions since graduating from high school.
—Goodman Research Group, The Girls’ School Experience: A Survey of Young Alumnae of Single-Sex Schools

 

6. Builds Self-Confidence

A girl occupies every role in all-girls learning environments.

  • Girls’ school students show more confidence compared to girls in coeducational schools, which might explain why girls in girls’ schools typically do better academically and are more likely to choose to study STEM subjects than girls in coed schools.
—AQR International
  • The majority of girls’ school graduates report higher self-confidence than their coeducated peers.
—Dr. Linda Sax, UCLA, Women Graduates of Single-Sex and Coeducational High Schools: Differences in their Characteristics and the Transition to College
  • 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.
—Dr. Rosemary C. Salomone, St. John’s University, Same, Different, Equal: Rethinking Single-Sex Schooling

 

7. Dedicated to How Girls Learn

All-girls learning environments capitalize on girls’ unique learning styles.

  • To be successful, students need more than just a feeling of support. That support must translate into actions geared toward student success. Nearly 96% of girls’ school students report receiving more frequent feedback on their assignments and other course work than girls at coeducational schools.
—Dr. Richard A. Holmgren, Allegheny College, Steeped in Learning: The Student Experience at All-Girls Schools
  • More positive academic and behavioral interactions were observed between teachers and students in single-sex schools than in the comparison to coeducational schools.
—U.S. Department of Education, Early Implementation of Public Single-Sex Schools: Perceptions and Characteristics

 

8. Inspirational Environment

Girls take center stage in all-girls learning environments.

  • The robust learning environment encountered by students at girls’ schools…provides unequivocal support for the value of an all-girls educational environment.
—Dr. Richard A. Holmgren, Allegheny College, Steeped in Learning: The Student Experience at All-Girls Schools
  • Single-sex programs…create an institutional and classroom climate in which female students can express themselves freely and frequently and develop higher order thinking skills.
—Dr. Rosemary C. Salomone, Columbia University’s Teacher College Record
  • Emphasizing their ability to learn independently, graduates of girls’ schools more frequently explore topics on their own, even when not required, compared to their coeducated peers.
—Dr. Tiffani Riggers-Piehl, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Fostering Academic and Social Engagement: An Investigation into the Effects of All-Girls Education in the Transition to University

 

9. Academic Achievement

All-girls learning environments create a culture of achievement.

  • Girls’ school graduates are more likely to frequently seek alternative solutions to a problem and more than 2/3 report frequently supporting their arguments with logic, which coeducated graduates are less likely to report doing.
—Dr. Tiffani Riggers-Piehl, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Fostering Academic and Social Engagement: An Investigation into the Effects of All-Girls Education in the Transition to University
  • Females especially do better academically in single-sex schools and colleges across a variety of cultures. …Single-sex schools help to improve student achievement.
—Dr. Cornelius Riordan, Providence College, Girls and Boys in School: Together or Separate?
  • Nearly 80% of girls’ school students report most of their classes challenge them to achieve their full academic potential compared to only 44% of girls at coeducational public schools.
—Dr. Richard A. Holmgren, Allegheny College, Steeped in Learning: The Student Experience at All-Girls Schools
  • More than 80% of girls’ school grads consider their academic performance highly successful.
—Dr. Linda Sax, UCLA, Women Graduates of Single-Sex and Coeducational High Schools: Differences in their Characteristics and the Transition to College
  • One hour a week of single-sex education benefits females: females are 7% more likely to pass their first-year courses and score 10% higher in their required second year classes than their peers attending coeducational classes.
—Booth, Cardona-Sosa, and Nolen, Do Single-Sex Classes Affect Exam Scores? An Experiment in a Coeducational University

 

10. Fosters Increased Interest & Confidence in STEM

All-girls learning environments champion the educational needs of girls as a group currently underrepresented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) majors and careers.

  • Girls’ school graduates on average report greater science self-confidence than coeducated peers in their ability to use technical science skills, understand scientific concepts, generate a research question, explain study results, and determine appropriate data collection.
—Dr. Tiffani Riggers-Piehl, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Fostering Academic and Social Engagement: An Investigation into the Effects of All-Girls Education in the Transition to University
  • Girls’ school graduates are 6 times more likely to consider majoring in math, science, and technology compared to girls who attended coeducational schools.
—Goodman Research Group, The Girls’ School Experience: A Survey of Young Alumnae of Single-Sex Schools
  • Compared to coeducated peers, girls’ school graduatess are 3 times more likely to consider engineering careers.
—Dr. Linda Sax, UCLA, Women Graduates of Single-Sex and Coeducational High Schools: Differences in their Characteristics and the Transition to College
  • During the middle school years, girls show a decline in both their performance in math and theIr attitudes towards math. Research suggests that girls’ schools may mitigate the decline when compared with coeducational schools.
—Dr. Carlo Cerruti, Harvard University, Exploring Girls’ Attitudes about Math
  • Girls from all-female courses reported more academic interests in computer science or potential to pursue a computing career.
  • All-girl environments with girl-only peers helped build community and increased girls’ self-reported amount of learning. Girls felt they could do computing because there were other girls doing it around them.
—National Center for Women & Information Technology, Girls in IT: The Facts

Research studies conducted around the world—Australia, Caribbean, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States—find that girls’ schools foster increased confidence and interest in math.

  • At the start of university, girls’ school graduates in the U.S. rate their confidence in their math skill abilities 10% higher than do their coeducated peers.

—Dr. Linda Sax, UCLA, Women Graduates of Single-Sex and Coeducational High Schools: Differences in their Characteristics and the Transition to College
  • Across the Caribbean islands, girls’ school students consistently have a higher pass rate in mathematics, as well as a higher percentage of distinctions, than girls in coed schools and boys in both single-gender and coed schools.
—Joan Spencer-Ernandez & Lois George, The University of the West Indies, Single Sex vs. Co-Educational High Schools: Performance of Caribbean Students Across School Types in Mathematics on the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate
  • In Switzerland, girls in single-gender classes evaluate their math skills more positively and are more likely to attribute their math performance to their own efforts rather than to exogenous talent or luck.
—Gerald Eisenkopf et al, University of Konstanz, Academic Performance and Single-sex Schooling: Evidence From a Natural Experiment in Switzerland

 

11. Excellent Mentoring

Students in all-girls learning environments are supported by a community of peers, teachers, and school administrators.

  • The overwhelming majority of girls’ school students agree to strongly agree that they feel supported at their schools: 95% feel supported by their teachers (compared to 84% of girls at coeducational public schools), 90% report feeling supported by other students (compared to 73%), and 83% feel supported by their school administrators (compared 63%).
—Dr. Richard A. Holmgren, Allegheny College, Steeped in Learning: The Student Experience at All-Girls Schools

 

12. Free From Stereotypes

In all-girls learning environments there are no stereotypes about what girls like or where they excel.

  • Girls as young as six can be led to believe men are inherently smarter and more talented than women, making girls less motivated to pursue novel activities or ambitious careers.
—Dr. Sarah-Jane Leslie, Princeton University and Dr. Andrei Cimpian, New York University, Gender Stereotypes About Intellectual Ability Emerge Early and Influence Children’s Interests
  • All-girls educational environments negate this societal norm by providing opportunities for girls during a critical time in their growth and development. Not only do girls receive a wealth of avenues for self-exploration and development, they also see a wealth of peer role models. Girls need to ‘see it, to be it’ to make them more aware of the possibilities in their own lives and help set them on their own brilliant paths.
—Megan Murphy, Executive Director, National Coalition of Girls’ Schools

 

13. Higher Aspirations

Students in all-girls learning environments strive for greatness.

  • Students at girls’ schools have higher aspirations and greater motivation than their female peers at coeducational schools. 99% of students at girls’ schools expect to earn a four-year degree. More than 2/3 expect to earn a graduate or professional degree.
—Dr. Richard A. Holmgren, Allegheny College, Steeped in Learning: The Student Experience at All-Girls Schools
  • Girls at all levels of achievement in the single-sex schools receive a…benefit from the single-sex school environment in terms of heightened career aspirations—an effect unprecedented in any other portion of our study.
—Dr. Cary M. Watson, Stanford University, Sex Roles: A Journal of Research

 

14. Prepares Girls for the Real World

All-girls learning environments engage students in activities that prepare them for life beyond the classroom.

  • Girls’ school students display more mental toughness in comparison to girls in coed schools. Research shows that individuals with higher levels of mental toughness are more likely to deal effectively with stress, pressure, opportunity, and challenge.
—AQR International
  • Nearly half of all women graduating from single-sex schools rate their public speaking ability as high compared to only 39% of women graduates from coeducational schools. A similar differential exists for writing abilities: 64% of girls’ school graduates assess their writing as high (compared to 59%).
—Dr. Linda Sax, UCLA, Women Graduates of Single-Sex and Coeducational High Schools: Differences in their Characteristics and the Transition to College

 

Quick Facts. NCGS. https://www.ncgs.org/research/quick-facts/