Review of Economics and Development Studies, Vol.

6 (2) 2020, 545-555

A Comparison of Students’ Academic Achievement in English in Single-Sex and Co-

Educational Schools
a
Safdar Hussain
a
PhD Scholar, Department of English, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Pakistan

ARTICLE DETAILS ABSTRACT

History: In this ex post facto research, the difference in students’ academic
Accepted 18 May 2020 achievement in English has been examined in single-sex and co-
Available Online 15 June 2020 educational schools on the bases of data obtained from 576 students
from 03 boys’ only, 04 girls’ only, and 07 co-educational secondary
Keywords: schools from Multan. Students’ score in achievement test and gain in
Academic Achievement, English grades obtained in the subject of English from 2001 to 2005 were
Language, Gender, Single-Sex analysed using t-test of independent samples against grouping variable
Schools, Co-Educational Schools type of school students attended. Statistical control was also applied in
the analyses of co-variance over confounding variables associated with
JEL Classification: students’ family and school. Both boys and girls from single-sex schools
I23, P36, P39 obtained better score in achievement test and gained better grades than
students from co-educational schools and this difference remained
statistically significant even after applying statistical control.
DOI: 10.47067/reads.v6i2.230

© 2020 The authors. Published by SPCRD Global Publishing. This is an

open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial 4.0
Corresponding author’s email address:

1. Introduction
The educational benefits of single-sex and co-educational schooling for boys and girls have
become controversial after the rapid growth of co-educational schools in Pakistan. Even in the
developed countries where co-education has become a norm, the question of relative benefits of single-
sex and co-educational schooling is still under discussion. Recent studies (Jackson, 2002; Warrington
and Younger, 2002) have examined the benefits of single-sex classes for different subjects in co-
educational schools in order to address the gap in performance of boys and girls. Western countries
adopted co-educational schooling because of its promise of gender equality. That is why along with
educational perspective, this subject is also discussed from economic, medical and moral point of view
(Arnot, M., 1983, 1984, 1994, 2002; Sax, L., 2005).

2. Literature Review
In any study related to the comparison of single-sex and co-educational schooling, the work of R. R.
Dale (Dale, 1969, 1971, 1974) is given special consideration. It has been accepted as a classic work on
this subject (A. E. P. 1988). During his 26 years long research in United Kingdom, he conducted surveys

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with students and teachers and did action research in both co-educational and single-sex schools to
understand their relative merits. He reviewed the research already done on this subject and published
findings of his own research in Mixed or Single-Sex School? (Dale, 1969, 1971, 1974). He concluded that
co-education provided a better environment for students and staff and the question of co-educational
and single-sex schooling should not be raised again (Dale, 1974). However, his findings regarding the
advantages of co-education for girls are not supported by strong evidence (Caspi, 1995; Riordan, 1990,
1985; Carpenter and Hayden, 1987). Moreover, the work of Dale has now become out dated as values,
policies and even laws have changed.

The earlier studies (Dale, 1969, 1971, 1974; Davies, 1950; Valentine, 1950; Moreton, 1939; Clark,
1937; Walton, 1935; Tyson, 1928) found co-educational schooling better for academic and emotional
development of students. Whereas, contemporary longitudinal studies confirm that single-sex schooling
can produce better results (Grace, 2012; Spielhofer, O’Donnell, Schagen, Benton and Schagen, 2002;
Harker, 2000; LePore and Warren, 1997; Lee and Marks, 1990; Lee and Bryk, 1986; Riordan, 1985).
However, the results of these studies become insignificant when statistical control on extraneous
variables is applied (Marsh 1989). Some of the studies conclude that single-sex schools produce higher
academic achievement, self-esteem, self-concept, career and educational aspirations and locus of
control (Watson, Quatman, and Edler, 2002; Woodward, Fergusson and Horwood, 1999; LePore and
Warren, 1997; Riordan, 1994, 1990, 1985; Brutsaert and Bracke, 1994; Lee and Bryk, 1986). Whereas,
remaining studies indicate no effect of co-educational / single-sex schooling on these variables (Harker,
2000; Harker and Nash, 1997; Conway, 1996; Daly and Shuttleworth, 1996; Daly, 1996; Young and
Fraser, 1992; Marsh, 1991, 1989; Lee and Marks, 1990; Marsh, Smith, Marsh, and Owens, 1988). Which
mode of schooling produces better results is still debatable. Existing research on this subject does not
provide final solution. However, it can be seen that in the contemporary studies there is no proof in
favour of co-educational schooling. It confirms that earlier supporters of co-educational schooling were
fascinated by this idea. Most of this research on this subject was conducted in developed countries
where co-educational schools have established as a norm and they are run by state whereas single-sex
education is available only in private schools. However in Pakistan, situation is different as most of the
government schools are single-sex while private schools are both single-sex and co-educational.
Therefore, a comparative study of befits of single-sex and co-educational schooling was much needed in
Pakistan.

3. Research Methodology
The decision about research methodology and sampling techniques was made on the bases of
literature review and nature of target population. In the experimental research it is required to
manipulate independent variable in order to see its effect on dependent variable(s). However, it was not
possible to manipulate independent variable type of school students attended in the present study.
Therefore, the ex post facto approach was found to be the most appropriate one for the present study
because the main objective was to “explore possible causal relationships among variables that cannot be
manipulated by the researcher” (McMillan and Schumacher, 1997). Its literal meanings are in retrospect
or after the fact and it refers to a research which investigates possible cause of an effect in retrospect
(Gay, Mills and Airasian, 2006). The ex post facto approach was also found useful as the development of
students in these schools could also be examined by using their data from previous years.

In an ex post facto research, it is required to statistically control any possible effects of background
variables from the effect of independent variable which was type of school students attended in the
present study. Whereas, background variables were related to students’ family and school such as
strength of English language class, medium of instruction, education level of parents, economic status
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of the family etc. It was tried to include maximum number of family and school related factors to
ensure that reliable results were obtained. Only after statistical control over these background
variables, the results could predict the effect of the independent variable precisely. Some of these
variables were eliminated during sampling but others which could not be eliminated were statistically
controlled in the analysis of co-variance.

3.1 Data Collection

To minimize the background variables related to geographical location, the data was collected
from 14 English medium schools situated in Multan. Out of these 14 schools, 03 were boys’ only, 04
were girls’ only and 07 were co-educational schools. Moreover, the data was collected from students of
10th year only.

An achievement test and students’ grades in the subject of English in the previous exams were
used to determine students’ academic achievement in English. Data related to grades from 2001 to 2005
was collected from school record. For that purpose, a data sheet was prepared to collect data regarding
percentage of their marks obtained in the subject of English in the previous years. The same data sheet
was also used to collect data related to background variables. The data related to mother tongue of
students was also considered but it was not included in the statistical analysis as no student selected
English language as mother tongue.

3.2 Achievement Test

As data for this research was collected from large number of students with limited resources, it
was not feasible to conduct separate tests of reading, writing, listening and speaking skills to measure
students’ academic achievement in English. Therefore, an objective type grammar test of 100 marks
was prepared from Oxford Placement Test (Allan, 1992) to measure academic achievement in English. It
is used all over the world in the educational institutions as a valid and reliable instrument for the
assessment of students’ proficiency in English (Eckes & Grotjahn, 2006). It consists of two parts;
grammar test and listening test of 100 marks each. Only Grammar Test of 100 marks was used for data
collection in the present research. It consists of 100 multiple choice questions related to grammar of
English. These multiple choice questions are based on the grammatical structures used frequently in the
course books of English. Validity and reliability statistics of this test are not given in the manual but its
Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient was 0.888 during piloting in one of the schools in the present
study.

4. Data Analyses
For data analysis, a master table was prepared on the bases of data collected from schools. Table
1 given below shows the total number of students included in the present study.
Table 1:

School Type
SS* CoEd** Total
Girls 140 122 262
Sex
Boys 156 158 314
Total 296 280 576
*SS = Single sex / **CoEd=Co-educational

T-test of independent samples, regression analysis and analysis of co-variance were used in data
analyses to determine whether students’ achievement in English is different in single-sex and co-

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educational schools.

4.1 T-Test of Independent Samples

T-test of independent samples is used in the comparison of means of two groups. It is used for
continuous variables to determine whether the difference in the mean values is statistically significant
(Gay, Mills and Airasian, 2006; Mertens, 1998).

4.1.1 Dependent Variable Achievement Test Score

T-test of independent samples was used to compare students’ achievement test scores taking
type of school as a grouping variable for boys only, girls only and combine samples separately. Results
of these analyses are given below in table 2.

Table 2:

Boys-only Girls-only Combined

Achievement Test
SS CoEd t SS CoEd t SS CoEd t
N 296 280 140 122 156 158
Mean 50.45 45.40 5.492* 52.83 49.02 3.700* 51.57 46.98 6.609*
S.D. 8.279 8.025 8.348 8.251 8.382 8.307
*p<.001 (2-tailed)

Results from t-test of independent samples indicate that students from single-sex schools have
performed better as compared to students from co-educational schools in achievement test as their
mean difference is 4.598. This difference is statistically significant as probability of error is less than
.001 (p<.001). Just like combined samples in separate samples for girls-only, mean difference is 3.805
in favour of single-sex schools (p<.001) and in separate samples for boys-only, mean difference is 5.053
in favour of single-sex (p<.001). It has also been observed that girls had performed better than boys in
both single-sex and co-educational schools, that raises another question whether students’ performance
in certain subjects is connected to their sex.

4.1.2 Dependent Variable Gain in Grades

T-test of independent samples was also used to compare gain in grades taking type of school as a
grouping variable. Gain in grades were calculated by subtracting grade obtained in 2001 from grade
obtained in 2005. Results of these analyses are given below in table 3.

Table 3:
Gain = Grade 05 – Grade 01

Boys-only Girls-only Combined

Gain
SS CoEd t SS CoEd Gain SS CoEd Gain
N 156 158 140 122 296 280
Mean 1.0641 .7975 4.584** .9643 .7869 2.966* 1.0169 .7929 5.372**
S.D. .50391 .52649 .43927 .51793 .47627 .52187
* p<.005,** p<.001 (2-tailed)

Results from t-test of independent samples indicate that students from single-sex schools have
gained more in grades from year 2001 to 2005 than students from co-educational schools as the mean
difference of gain in grades is .22403 in favour of single-sex schools and this mean difference is

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statistically significant as probability of error is less than .001 (p<.001). Just like combined sample in
separate samples for girls-only, mean difference is .17740 in favour of single-sex schools (p<.005) and
in separate samples for boys-only, mean difference is .26663 in favour of single-sex schools (p<.001).
These differences can be considered a result of students’ lack of concentration on the studies in co-
educational environment.

4.2 Background Variables

Because the present study is an ex post facto research, it is a possible that the differences found
significant in t-test are a result of individual, family or school related confounding variables. Therefore,
the data related to confounding variables were analysed against type of school students attended. For
the strength of class and age of student, t-test of independent samples was used because these variables
are continues variables. For economic status of family, education level of father and mother and sex of
the teacher, chi-square test of independence was applied because they are categorical and ordinal
variables. Along with combined sample, separate analyses were also conducted for both the sexes,
taking boys-only sample and girls-only samples.

In the analyses of background variables, results of t-test of independent samples indicated

significant differences in average strength of the class for separate samples for both the sexes as well as
for combined sample. Single-sex schools had a relatively higher strength of a class than co-educational
schools. The different in the age of students was not statistically significant in all the comparisons.
Whereas, results of chi-square test indicated that the difference in the economic status of the family was
statistically significant in all the comparisons. In the variable of economic status of family both single-
sex and co-educational schools had a relatively low percentage of students from working class and in
co-educational schools a relatively high percentage of students from the upper class. This indicated that
economic status of the family is a good predictor of choice of school. Only upper and upper-middle class
families can afford private English medium schools. Among them the upper class families comparatively
prefer co-educational schools and the middle class families prefer single-sex English medium schools.
Whereas, working class families have to depend upon government schools which are usually Urdu
medium schools.

The difference in the education level of father was statistically significant for girls-only and
combined samples whereas the difference in the education level of mother was statistically significant
for boys-only and combined samples. Difference in sex of the teacher was statistically significant only
for boys-only sample and girls-only sample because teachers of the same sex according to the type of
school are appointed in single-sex schools i.e. female teachers in girls-only schools and male teachers in
boys-only schools.

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Table 4:
∆ = Mean difference

Analysis of Boys-only Girls-only Combined

Background
SS CoEd ∆ SS CoEd ∆ SS CoEd ∆
Variables
Mean 31.22 21.68 9.541 30.61 22.17 8.43 30.93 21.89 9.036
Students
S.D. 8.12 3.368 *** 5.921 3.461 5 *** 7.159 3.411 ***
Mean 15.42 15.44 15.4 15.32 15.41 15.39
-
Age 0.78 0.08 0.80 0.019
S.D. 0.786 0.026 0.632 0.836 0.717
7 9
% within School Type
Low 3.2 0.6 5 0 4 0.3
Economic
Middle 31.2 21 *** 34.7 15.3 *** 32.8 18.4 ***
Status
High 15.3 28.7 13.7 31.3 14.6 29.9
Low 21.4 20.8 19.7 18.1 20.6 19.6
Education
Middle 26 28.9 - 26.6 26.6 * 26.3 27.9 **
of father
High 2.6 0.3 6.9 1.9 4.6 1.1
Low 18.3 25.1 22.8 20.5 20.4 23
Education
Middle 25.4 21.9 * 22 22.4 - 23.9 22.1 **
of mother
High 6.4 2.9 8.9 3.5 7.5 3.2
Sex of the Female 0 23.6 53.4 20.6 24.3 22.2
*** *** -
Teacher Male 49.7 26.8 0 26 27.1 26.4

* p<.05,** p<.005,*** p<.001

These differences of background variables highlight their importance in the data analysis.
Therefore all the background variables whose differences were statistically significant in these
comparisons were selected for further analyses for better explanation of the difference in the students’
academic achievement in English in single-sex and co-educational schools.

4.3 Data Analysis Using Linear Regression

In ex post facto research, linear regression is a useful test because it can determine the
coefficients of linear equation in which one or more independent variables can predict the value of a
dependent variable (Mertens, 1998; Gay, Mills and Airasian, 2006). In this study, it was used to
compare independent and background variables for their effects on dependent variables.

In a regression analysis all dependent and independent variables need to be entered in

quantitative form. Therefore, categorical variables; type of school, sex of the student and sex of the
teacher were converted to binary variables. Independent variables: type of school and sex of the student
were entered along background variables: number of students in the class, education level of father and
mother, economic status of family and sex of the teacher, against each dependent variable. Separate
regression analyses were conducted for boys-only, girls-only and combined data.

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4.3.1 Dependent Variable Achievement Test Score

TABLE 5:
β = Standardized Beta Coefficients

Boys-only Girls-only Combined Sample

β β β
(Constant)
Type of School - .314* - .268* - .294*
Sex of Student - .126*
Students -0.028 0.014 -0.026
Education of Father .467* .603* .525*
Education of Mother .401* .462* .423*
Economic Status .390* .299* .339*
Sex of Teacher .012* .042* 0.021
* p<.001

In the regression analysis of achievement test score,

 Type of school emerged as an important predictor (β = - .294, p<.001) with covariates
education of father, education of mother, economic status and sex of the student in combined
sample.
 In girls-only data type of school appeared as an important predictor (β = - .268, p<.001) with
covariates education of father, education of mother, economic status and sex of teacher.
 In boys-only data type of school again appeared as an important predictor (β = - .314, p<.001)
with covariates education of father, education of mother, economic status and sex of teacher.
It can be seen in the regression analysis that the type of school students attended is comparatively
an important predictor of students’ academic achievement in English but the effect of education level of
father and mother, economic status of the family, gender of the students and teacher cannot be ignored.

4.3.2 Dependent Variable Grains

TABLE 6:

Boys-only Girls-only Combined Sample

β β β
(Constant)
Type of School - .236*** -0.119 - .210****
Sex of Student 0.077
Students 0.033 0.085 0.054
Education of Father .162*** .164* .157****
Education of Mother .127* .136* .129***
Economic Status .169** 0.115 .159****
Sex of Teacher 0.007 -0.049 0.004
* p<.05, ** p<.01, *** p<.005, **** p<.001

In the regression analysis for gains in grades,

 Type of school emerged as the most important predictor (β = - .210, p<.001) with covariates
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economic status, education of father and education of mother in combined sample.
 In girls-only data, type of school did not appear as important predictor.
 In boys-only data type of school appeared as the most important predictor (β = - .236, p<.001)
with covariates education of father, economic status and education of mother.
As far as students’ academic progress is concerned, type of school proved to be one of the most
important predictors along with economic status of family and education level of father and mother.

4.4 Univariate Analysis of Co-variance

T-test of independent samples is suitable to compare mean values when the subjects are randomly
assigned to control and experimental groups in an experimental study and it is confirm that any
difference in the mean values is due to effect of independent variable only. Whereas in an ex post facto
research like present study, students are not randomly distributed in co-educational or single-sex
schools. Therefore, it is compulsory to confirm that differences in other predictors were not improving
or hiding a significant difference in means.

Therefore, analyses of co-variance were conducted to statistically control confounding variables

and to calculate covariate adjusted or estimated marginal means for single-sex and co-educational
schools. Statistical control is a technique through which the effects of confounding variables are
eliminated from the effect of one independent variable on dependent variables (Mertens, 1998; Gay,
Mills and Airasian, 2006). In a quantitative analysis for making a valid inference, it is necessary to keep
confounding variables constant to ensure that an effect is due to only one independent variable.

4.4.1 Dependent Variable Achievement Test Score

In order to calculate covariate adjusted mean of achievement test score, analysis of co-variance
was performed twice; first controlling only grade obtained in 2001 then controlling both grade obtained
in 2001 and covariates identified in the analyses of background variables and linear regression analysis.

Table 7:

Estimated Adjusted for Grade 01

Type of School Unadjusted Adjusted for Grade 01
Marginal Means and Covariates
SS 50.35 52.150 49.813
Boys-only
CoEd 46.01 47.763 46.552
SS 52.68 54.594 52.534
Girls-only
CoEd 49.34 53.670 49.500
SS 51.44 53.310 51.075
Combined
CoEd 47.48 50.726 47.874

4.4.2 Dependent Variable Gain in Grades

In order to calculate covariate adjusted mean of dependent variable gain in grades, analysis of
co-variance was performed controlling only grade obtained in 2001. Other covariates identified in the
analyses of background variables and linear regression analysis were not included because univariate
analysis of variance confirmed that they had interactions with independent variable type of school.

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Table 8:

Estimated Marginal Adjusted for

Type of School Unadjusted
Means Grade 01
SS 1.0641 1.172
Boys-only
CoEd .7975 .765
SS .9643 1.039
Girls-only
CoEd .7869 .818
SS 1.0169 1.122
Combined
CoEd .7929 .784

It can be seen in the analyses of co-variance that even after controlling confounding variables
and students’ previous performance, students in single-sex schools have achieved better grades and
score on achievement test in English. This difference in their performance can be associated with social
and gender environment of these institutions. Students’ lower scores in co-educational schools indicates
that they are distracted in the presence of members from opposite sex. It can be explained on the bases
of gender-segregated society in Pakistan. Here, boys and girls remain separate in almost all the domains
of life. When they get a chance to study together in co-educational schools, they find it difficult to
concentrate on their studies. Consequently, they achieve less as compared to students in single-sex
schools. Hence, this study supports the findings of Woodward, Fergusson and Horwood (1999), LePore
and Warren (1997), Riordan (1994), Riordan (1990), Lee and Bryk (1986), Riordan (1985).

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