Why All Girls?

The Benefits of Attending a Girls' School: What the Research Shows

Picture a classroom. Any subject, any grade level. Imagine the teacher asks a question of the class ... and virtually every hand shoots right up into the air. Virtually every student is eager to answer, enthusiastic about learning.

This is a scene played out daily in the classrooms of National Coalition of Girls' Schools member schools--like Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart. Girls' school classrooms are places where education is prized, where teachers feel empowered, where girls are excited about being in school.

Dr. Rosemary C. Salomone, writing in the April 2006 edition of Columbia University's Teachers College Record, examines the research surrounding single-sex education, ranging from developmental psychology perspectives to studies on the classroom environment and teacher-student interaction:

"Drawing from that research, one of the key arguments supporting single-sex programs is that they create an institutional and classroom climate in which female students can express themselves freely and frequently, and develop higher order thinking skills."¹

That is exactly the argument put forward here. At girls' schools, we believe that single-sex education is not merely a matter of separating girls and boys. It's about making sure girls take center stage, while drawing upon all that we know about the way they grow and learn. It's not just the classroom. It's the combination of the community, the culture and the climate girls' schools offer that makes all-girl education such a powerful and transformative experience.

1. The Benefits of Attending a Girls’ School: What the Research Shows,” http://www.ncgs.org/ (National Coalition of Girls' Schools).

For more information, email Admission Director Rosanne Tomich at rosanneto@forestridge.org