Why an All-Girl Education?

Students

All-girl schools provide a learning environment that is fundamentally different from co-ed schools. There are many benefits—both academic and social—in an all-girl education setting, and research shows evidence that supports single-sex education. Stuart is a member of the National Coalition of Girls' Schools.

What Are The Benefits Of an All-Girl Education?

Girls Put Academics First

  • Girls at single-sex schools surpass their co-ed peers in reading, writing and science. They also demonstrate higher educational aspirations, spend more time on homework and are more likely to aspire to careers in engineering and science. (Linda Sax, Ph.D. "Graduates of Single Sex and Coed High Schools" UCLA, NCGS presentation June, 2008)
  • 84 percent of all-girl school graduates felt they were better prepared for college writing assignments than their co-ed peers. (NCGS Survey, 2005)

Girls Enjoy Every Opportunity

  • All leadership roles at all-girl schools are taken by girls.
  • "When girls go to single-sex schools, they stop being the audience and become the players." (Myra and David Sadker, American University)

Girls Take Academic Risks

  • At girls' schools, every girl learns to take on academic challenges, express her thoughts and opinions and participate in new learning experiences.
  • "As a college professor, I could identify students from girls' schools with a 90 percent accuracy rate on the first day of class. They were the young women whose hands shot up in the air, who were not afraid to defend their positions, and who assumed that I would be interested in their perspectives." (Robin Robertson, Ph.D.)

Girls Thrive when Their Learning Style Takes Center Stage

  • Educators at all-girl schools capitalize on girls' unique learning styles.
  • "During these key adolescent years [12-16], single-sex settings better accommodate the developmental needs of students." (Ken Rowe, Natl. Conference on Co-Education, 2000)

Girls Acquire Leadership for Life Skills

  • Opportunities for girls to learn leadership skills are more plentiful at all-girl schools.
  • Graduates of girls' schools and/or women's colleges account for a third of female board members of Fortune 500 companies and 25% of female members of Congress. (Natl. Coalition of Girls' Schools, 2006)

Alumnae Voices

  • "At Stuart I learned that being intelligent wasn't something to hide and, as a result, was encouraged to push myself intellectually. I felt comfortable and confident in the single-sex environment to try new things—socially and academically—that I might have avoided at a co-ed school."
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Further Reading

The Benefits of an All-Girl Education: a presentation by Kristina Schulte, Stuart Dean of Faculty, 2007.

  Executive Summary: Women Graduates of Single Sex and Coeducational High Schools: Differences in their Characteristics and their Transition to College, research by Linda J. Sax, Ph.D.

Girls Do Better than Boys, Study Finds. 
(3-18-2009) Visit the London Guardian website.

Grads of All-Girls Schools Show Stronger Academic Orientation Than Coed Grads. Visit the Newsroom page for more information on this ground-breaking UCLA/NCGS study.

Girls Will Be Girls: Raising Confident and Courageous Daughters, by JoAnn Deak and Teresa Barker.

The National Coalition of Girls Schools. 2006. What the Research Shows.