Enhancing Girls’ Learning Through Single-Sex Education: Evidence and a Policy Conundrum

Abstract

A key consideration in the policy debate on the appropriate role of single-sex education in predominantly coeducational school systems is relative benefit for male and female students. This paper analyzes the relative performance of single-sex education and coeducation in Thailand in enhancing eighth-grade male and female student scores on standardized mathematics tests, holding constant student background, peer, and school characteristics. Its main conclusions are that (a) single-sex schooling is more effective for female students and coeducational schooling is more effective for male students in improving student performance in mathematics and (b) these differentials are largely due to peer effects rather than to specific characteristics of single-sex and coeducational classrooms or schools.