North Park Students Star at All Boys-Girls Schools
North Park News
January 2008
By Sandy Pasqua

Eliminating age-old distractions helps, say Saints and OLP educators

The pros and cons of single-sex education – that is, all girls’ or all boys’ private schools – continues, as it always has, to generate lively discussion. Parents ask: Do students perform better without opposite sex in classes? Will they learn to be socially competent in a single-sex school? Can the family afford the costs in time and money? School? Can the family afford the costs in time and money?

The answers to the first question, at least in North Park, appears to be a resounding yes. In general, students in single-sex schools – and possibly in other private schools – consistently excel academically.

Several reasons are suggested as contributors to that achievement. One commonly held belief is that young people at certain ages are inhibited or overpowered by the opposite sex. Another is that boys and girls learn differently, and single-sex educators recognize and respond to that in the ways they teach.

Among the main arguments against single-sex education is that it delays or prevents socialization, creating adjustment problems for students when they leave school. North Park is home to two of the best-known single-sex schools in the county: St. Augustine High School (Saints) for boys and the Academy of Our Lady of Peace (OLP) for girls. The only other single-sex school of significant size is the Army and Navy Academy for boys in Carlsbad. Some districts, including San Ysidro and Sweetwater, have done some experimenting on a limited basis with single-sex classes in subjects other than physical education.

Saints and OLP, both Catholic schools, can point to years of consistent academic achievement – OLP for 125 years and Saints for 56 years. Both turn away qualified students every year to stay within enrollment limits, and both always have extraordinarily high numbers of graduates going on to college.

For the sixth consecutive year, every one of Saints’ 2007 graduating seniors was headed to college, says James Horne, principal for 5 years. He says 93 percent were accepted into four-year schools, and the remaining 7 percent were planning to attend community colleges.

Our Lady of Peace Vice Principal Joyce Hampel reports similar figures. Every year, she says, 98 percent to 100 percent of OLP’s graduates go on for additional education.

Public High School graduates can’t be followed in the same way, but state numbers indicate much lower college attendance. California Department of Education figures show that in the 2005-06 school year, almost 35 percent of graduating San Diego County seniors had passed courses qualifying them for admission to state colleges and universities. How many attended is not known; and neither is how many attended out-of-state colleges or community colleges.

Saints principal Horne believes students in single-sex schools excel because they are taught in ways they learn best. “I don’t know if it is the absence of the opposite sex,” he says but after 17 years in boys’ schools he feels certain, “it is not what they are taught, but how they are taught.”

Hampel, who has taught both boys and girls during her career, echoes the importance of understanding how girls and boys learn. “They come at learning in different ways,” she says. “Girls are more quiet; boys are more physical. Women form connections, relationships and they learn that way. Boys may focus on one thing at a time.”

Even after girls have finished college and entered careers, they likely are not attracted by the highest paying fields says Hampel. “They are more apt to become involved in the service professions, and they don’t earn as much. They discover where the needs are and where they could make a difference in the world.”

Learners generally fall into three categories: auditory, visual and kinesthetic. Winnie Arnn, an English teacher at Saints for 13 years and of both boys and girls for 10 years before that, says most people learn in more than one style.

Through years of trial and error and anecdotal experience, Arnn learned effective methods that are being reinforced in ongoing research. The mother of both a son and daughter, Arnn’s understanding of the differences in girls and boys was clearly illustrated about 20 years ago. She watched her daughter, an OLP graduate and now an attorney, deliberately lose a coed spelling bee. When asked about it, her daughter said she had misspelled the word because boys made fun of girls who were smart.

Arnn was a Saints delegate to the 2007 annual conference of the International Boys School Coalition. The newest research, she says, is through magnetic imaging of the brains of students in different learning situations.

"Boys learn better with pictures,” she says. “Girls don’t seem to need that as much.” More boys than girls are kinesthetic learners, who do best if allowed to move and fidget in class. They respond better when teachers move around the room while lecturing, they don’t do well talking about feelings and they have trouble when a teacher demands direct eye contact, Arnn says. It is more effective to talk “shoulder to shoulder” she says, a practice emphasized at the conference.

One frequently heard argument against single-sex educations is that students in single sex schools fall behind socially.
"We are very aware that we are going to release these boys into a world that is not single-sex,” says Horne. He points to the two schools’ cooperation in a variety of coed activities, ranging from a football team with a large cheer squad to variety and talent shows, dances and proms.

Styles of learning may be paramount in reasons for the academic success, but another factor to be considered is parent involvement. Single sex schools are costly, and many families need financial assistance. OLP tuition is $9,500 a year with Saints about $1,000 more. In addition parents are required to invest time and labor in other ways. That may result in subtle, or not-so-subtle, urging students to do well.

But positive or negative factors seem to be overcome by those wanting to attend the schools. Both are at maximum enrollment year after year of 700-plus students. And both can have as many as 100 who qualify for admission and cannot be accommodated, even if they try to gain admission a subsequent year.

"Once students get started,” says Hampel, “they like it and don’t want to leave.”

St. Augustine High School
3266 Nutmeg Street, San Diego, CA 92104
Phone: (619) 282-2184 | Fax: (619) 282-1203 | www.sahs.org