New Research from HERI Faculty Affiliate Linda Sax

We are happy to announce the release of Women Graduates of Single-Sex and Coeducational High Schools: Differences in their Characteristics and the Transition to College” from Linda Sax, Associate Professor of Education at the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies and HERI Faculty Affiliate.

Linda has a long and strong record of using data from the CIRP surveys in her research. Her current study uses data from the 2005 CIRP Freshman Survey to compare the background, behaviors, attitudes, and aspirations of female graduates of private all-girls high schools and private co-educational high schools. The findings are intended to deepen our understanding of the influence that attending a single-sex high school has on women as they are beginning their college careers.

The findings include that graduates of all-girls high schools have stronger academic orientations at the beginning of college than their peers who attended co-educational high schools. In fact, nearly two-thirds of the women who attended private all-girls high schools reported spending 11 or more hours per week studying or doing homework in high school compared with less than half of their peers who attended co-educational private high schools. They also had higher SAT scores and more confidence academically than their peers who attended private co-educational high schools.

It will be interesting to see in future studies if these two groups of women experience college differently.

We invite your to check out the report and read the press release!

JUST ADDED – We now have a webcast summary of this report available.  Click here to view the webcast.