Academic Performance and Single-Sex Schooling: Evidence From a Natural Experiment

Using a natural experiment we study the effects of random assignment to coeducational and single-sex classes on the academic performance of female high school students. Apart from direct gender-specific peer effects, we also investigate indirect peer-effects that influence female students' development of cognitive skills via teacher gender. We find a positive effect of single-sex education on the performance in mathematics. This positive effect becomes larger if girls in a single sex class are taught by a male teacher.