A COMPARISON OF SINGLE-SEX AND COEDUCATIONAL CATHOLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLING - EVIDENCE FROM THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL LONGITUDINAL-STUDY OF 1988

Three questions were addressed using data from the National Educationa l Longitudinal Study of 1988. First, are there differences between sin gle-sex and coeducational Catholic secondary school students in academ ic and social psychological outcomes? Second, do these differences esp ecially favor young women in single-sex schools? Third, can student pr e-enrollment differences account for apparent sector effects? The resu lts indicated that single-sex Catholic secondary schools were not espe cially favorable academic settings and that any advantages of attendin g these schools only benefited boys. However, any sector differences i n student achievement test scores were explained by pre-enrollment dif ferences in measured back ground and prior achievement. Recent changes in the demographic make-up of all Catholic high schools may account f or the differences between our findings and prior research.