The Foreign Service Journal, June 2016

96 JUNE 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT in classroom discussions. Finally, studies show that single-sex education encour- ages students to develop their own inter- ests and take advantage of leadership opportunities regardless of their gender. According to New York Times writer Elizabeth Weil, administrators at single- sex schools report “fewer discipline issues, more parental support and higher test scores in reading, writing, and math” than their coed counterparts. Single-sex schools also reduce social and peer pressure, which has been inten- sified in recent years by social media. In some cases, removing the presence of girls allows boys to knuckle down and work on their own. Conversely, remov- ing the presence of boys can help girls become more vocal when engaging with peers because they no longer feel intimi- dated and are less self-conscious. Smashing Stereotypes Eliminating gender stereotypes in the classroom has demonstrable advantages, especially in closing achievement gaps. According to Sara Sykes, the director of admissions at Westover School (an all-girl’s school in Middlebury, Connecti- cut), students at single-sex schools are “more likely to pursue a wider range of fields of study especially in science, tech- nology, engineering and mathematics.” Ms. Sykes points to a recent National Coalition of Girls’ Schools study, which reported: “When rating their computer skills, 36 percent of graduates of indepen- dent girls’ schools consider themselves strong students compared to 26 percent of their coed peers. In addition, 48 per- cent of girls’ school alumnae rate them- selves great at math versus 37 percent for girls in coed schools. In fact, three times as many alumnae of girls’ schools plan to become engineers.” Likewise, a 2003 study in Psychology of Men and Masculinity indicated that boys from single-sex schools were more than twice as likely to pursue interests in subjects such as art, music, drama and foreign languages compared with boys at coed schools. However, some researchers caution that single-sex education is detrimental to the academic, social and behavioral development of a child because it can lead to even greater gender discrimina-