The Impact of School Size and Single-Sex Education on Performance

Tom Benton, Lisa O'Donnell, Sandie Schagen, Thomas Spielhofer, Ian Schagen

01 July 2002

NFER was commissioned by the Local Government Association (LGA) to explore two issues of enduring interest: the impact on performance of school size and single-sex education. There are arguments in favour of small schools and large schools. And although most comprehensive schools are coeducational, it is sometimes claimed that single-sex education is beneficial, particularly for girls.

In order to explore these issues, it was felt necessary to undertake a value-added analysis which took prior attainment and other key factors into account. The research comprised two strands: a review of published literature and some primary analysis.

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