Gescheiden onderwijs vergroot verschillen tussen jongens en meisjes?

Het onderzoek "Single-Sex versus Mixed-Sex Schooling and Student Performance: Evidence from PISA 2018" onderzocht of er verschillen bestaan in leerprestaties van leerlingen op jongens- en meisjesscholen of op gemengde scholen in Ierland. De onderzoekers gebruikten gegevens van Ierse leerlingen van het OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) voor lezen, wiskunde en wetenschap om de relatie tussen het volgen van gescheiden onderwijs en leerprestaties te onderzoeken. Na het controleren voor sociaal-economische en schoolgerelateerde factoren, vonden de onderzoekers geen significante verschillen in gemiddelde prestaties tussen jongens- en meisjes scholen en gemengde scholen voor zowel jongens als meisjes. Wel vonden ze dat de verschillen tussen jongens en meisjes in wiskunde en lezen groter waren voor leerlingen die gescheiden onderwijs volgde , in vergelijking met gemengde scholen. De onderzoekers concludeerden dat het beleid om gescheiden onderwijs te stimuleren op basis van leerprestaties op dit moment niet gerechtvaardigd is.

Het abstract

The advantages and disadvantages of single-sex schooling continue to be a source of policy and public debate. Previous empirical evidence is somewhat ambiguous, with some studies finding a positive impact of single-sex schooling on education achievement and others finding no differences across school types. The relationship between single-sex schooling on academic outcomes is typically problematic to examine, as in most countries single-sex schools are selective and the numbers attending them are relatively small. In Ireland, a high proportion of secondary school children (~1/3) attend a single-sex school. In addition, these schools are largely state-funded and non-selective but differing in composition compared to mixed-sex schools. For this reason, the Irish educational system provides an interesting setting for exploring the outcomes of single-sex schooling. In this context, this study utilises the 2018 PISA data for Ireland to examine the relationship between single-sex education and mathematics, reading and science literacy performance for boys and girls, respectively, as well as differences across gender in these outcomes. We find significant raw gaps in reading, science and mathematics scores between females in single-sex and mixed-sex schools and in mathematics scores for males across the same school types. However, after controlling for a rich set of individual, parental and school-level factors we find that, on average, there is no significant difference in performance for girls or boys who attend single-sex schools compared to their mixed-school peers in science, mathematics or reading. In terms of heterogeneous analysis, this finding is consistent across the performance distribution.

Key insights

What is the main issue that the paper addresses?

The topic of single-sex versus mixed-sex schooling continues to be a source of debate within education policy. This paper uses Irish data from the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) on reading, mathematics and science to examine the relationship between attending a single-sex school and academic performance.

What are the main insights that the paper provides?

Using a large sample of 15-year-olds, we provide evidence that after controlling for a rich set of individual, parental and school-level factors there is no difference in reading, mathematics or science performance between those attending single-sex or mixed-sex schools, with these findings consistent across the performance distribution.