The Idea of an Essay, Volume 2

79 single-sex education that may not be accurate. They hear wonderful things: that single-sex schools raise test scores, close the gender gap, or teach to children’s set neurological needs. These ideas, of course, sound fantastic, but before parents, schools, and communities spend time and funds separating their children by gender, it might be wise to question the purported beliefs about single-sex education. In truth, it appears that single-sex educational schools are no more effective than coeducational schools, and since any value added has little to do with set gender or neurological differences between boys and girls, the uncertain legality and high cost of establishing a single-sex school cannot be justified. A common assumption about single-sex education is that the gender composition of the schools contributes to the academic success of the attending students. However, as researchers delve deeper into the causes of academic success, they are finding that gender may not be one of the major contributors to academic success or failure. Rather, some studies conclude that other factors such as race and peer preferences influence a student’s academic ability more than gender does. One such study, conducted by Amy Roberson Hayes, Erin Pahlke, and Rebecca Bigler, explores the relationship between success in a single-sex school and factors such as peer preferences and selection of students. In the study, researchers compared the standardized test scores of girls attending a public, single-sex school with the scores of those attending a public, coeducational school, and the scores of those who applied to the single-sex school but were not accepted, and therefore ended up attending a public, coeducational school as well (Hayes, Pahlke, and Bigler 694). The results showed that girls attending the single-sex school had higher overall performance than those attending the coeducational school (701). However, when factors of school-driven selection and peer quality are taken into account, a whole new perspective arises. According to Hayes, Pahlke, and Bigler, selection effects are one factor that researchers largely overlooked in previous studies of this nature (695). In general, it appears that the success rates of students attending single-sex schools are likely to be affected by two kinds of selection preferences (695). Firstly, there may be systematic differences, such as student motivation and scholastic achievement, between students who choose to enroll in a