An article in the Age in May 2025 addressed a question that’s often on parents’ minds when choosing a school for their children – are single-sex or co-ed schools better? And is the answer different for girls than it is for boys?
The article prompted us to look up some online research on the topic (see below).
As the article points out, “This debate is as old as the history of schooling itself. Victoria had held two royal commissions on the subject before the turn of the 20th century.”
Research
The article refers to a ‘meta-analysis’ on the topic, where researchers examined 184 studies with more than 1.6 million participants around the world. And the result? There is little or no difference between outcomes in single-sex or co-education, for both boys and girls. This is not just for academic outcomes but also for attitudes to maths, science, confidence, aspiration and even body image.
You can read the Age article if you have a subscription, and some of the research papers it refers to are given below also.
- What the evidence says about sending your kids to single-sex v co-ed schools – The Age, 27 May 2025
- The effects of single-sex compared with coeducational schooling on students’ performance and attitudes: a meta-analysis – (Abstract on Pub Med)
- Single-sex schooling and achievement outcomes – Australian Council for Educational Research
- Do schools influence student engagement in the high school years? – National Centre for Vocational Education Research
- Same sex or co-ed? – Social and educational outcomes explored – ARACY
