Mixed but not scrambled gender gaps in single-sex classrooms

Abstract

In this paper we study the effect on the math gender gap from attending a singlesex classroom in a coeducational school versus a coeducational classroom in a coeducational school. In contrast to the previous literature that has studied the effect of single-sex schools, the advantage of using single-sex classrooms is that we can calculate gender gaps within schools, and therefore the results are not confounded with other school characteristics that may correlate with the gender composition. We find that single-sex classrooms reduce the math gender gap by more than half, with no effect on the language gender gap. The effect is consistent with an increase in the math achievement of female students with no decrease in the achievement of male students. Moreover, this effect is not driven by teacher characteristics, but it seems to be driven by the gender composition of the classroom itself.