Performance levels in science and other subjects for Jamaican adolescents attending single-sex and coeducational high schools

Abstract

The General Certificate of Education (GCE) O'Level examination results of 1,146 Jamaican high school students (529 boys and 617 girls) in single-sex and co-educational schools were analysed. Boys and girls from single-sex schools outperformed their counterparts in co-educational schools for both the total sample and the sub-sample of 337 investigated in greater depth. Significant favourable differences emerged for geography, chemistry, and biology for students in the single-sex schools. Girls in this type of school registered the highest grades in chemistry and biology. Possible explanations for these differences are explored