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On behalf of the 105 member schools of the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools and our 45,000 students, welcome to this first International Conference on Educating Girls. We are honored to join with the Girls’ Schools Association (UK) to combine our knowledge and resources in this extension of our decades of collaboration. Here today, we are two organizations, but the ideas we will share, the conversations we will have, and the results of our time together hold promise for educational opportunities for not just our schools and our girls, but all girls in all schools in all countries, even those who do not have the opportunity to attend school today.
It is a particular pleasure for me to return to the United Kingdom where I began my career in education over 30 years ago. My teachers’ training placed me first in Cheltenham Ladies College and then in a Cotswold comprehensive school. I could not have asked for a more powerful introduction to the opportunities available for girls in the private and public sectors. For the past 25 years, my work at St. Margaret’s School in Virginia has provided me with a laboratory for innovation and an entrée to collaboration on behalf of girls. I have been proud to watch our schools respond to changes in knowledge and culture as we prepare our students to take their places in their communities and families as leaders and entrepreneurs.
We see strong evidence of this sound preparation in the lives of our graduates. Brooke Trible Weinmann, a 1975 graduate of St. Margaret’s School, moved to Atlanta, Georgia after completing her MBA at Harvard University and marrying a classmate. Years later, when she looked at the educational landscape of her city to select schools for their four children, she realized that she would not be able to offer her daughters the girls’ school experience which she had enjoyed as a student and later as a trustee. Not willing to accept that lack of choice, she gathered a group of like-minded mothers, formed a study group, and completed the research and fund raising that led to the founding of Atlanta Girls’ School in time for her daughter to become a student there. Brooke’s contribution is just one example of women leading on behalf of their communities and their girls.
This morning, it is my privilege to outline for you the renaissance in girls’ education in the United States over the last 15 years and to document the reasons for this success.
First: What does this renaissance look like in real numbers?
Since 1991, NCGS has gathered data on girls’ schools and developed statistics around a core sample of one-third of our member schools.
Since 1991, enrollments have increased 25% in this core sample of schools, and inquiries and applications have increased substantially.
The percentage of schools at capacity enrollment is now three times greater.
Retention, a powerful indicator of student/parent satisfaction and program effectiveness, is 94%, compared to 90% for coed schools.
This past year, a girls’ school received the largest single gift: $17.7M, taking the total endowments of our schools to over $1.1B
Annually, $71.9M is provided in financial assistance to our students.
Although these are powerful statistics, two additional trends document the renaissance of girls’ schools in the United States:
The founding of 35 new public and private schools for girls, and
A change in the law now allows single sex public school classrooms for girls and boys in subjects where research shows they learn more effectively.
Clearly these trends document that demand outstrips supply.
And that takes us to the second portion of my remarks: How and why has this renaissance occurred?
Be assured that this has not taken place purely because of good schools, excellent teaching, and student success. There is an absolutely critical parallel path of research, collaboration, and communication that must be designed, followed, and supported. Without this second path, our schools and our students would not be thriving.
Research
Single sex schools have always taken advantage of the incredible privilege we have to create environments rich in opportunity and challenge. We were doing this long before MRIs showed us that different sections of the brain light up when girls and boys tackle math problems; before the American Association of University Women published Shortchanging Girls, Shortchanging America; before Carol Gilligan wrote In a Different Voice; before Myra and David Sadker conducted classroom observations illustrating that teachers unknowingly respond differently to girls and boys; before Title IX legislation mandated equal opportunity for girls; and before JoAnn Deak postulated the 3 c’s of How Girls Thrive (competence, confidence, connectedness).
Today, the research exists to support the distinct advantages of girls’ schools, and our organization has documented that research for the use of our schools (What the Research Shows and At Girls’ Schools) and conducted our own research, at approximately 5 year intervals, on the outcomes of girls’ only education in the lives of our alumnae. Our newest research, a survey of 1,000 alumnae of the Class of 2004 from 61 girls’ schools nationwide, documents our students’ transitions to university-level education. Not surprisingly, responding at the end of their first year of study, they had high praise for their girls’ school experience.
95% of the survey respondents were very or extremely satisfied with their school’s ability to provide a rigorous academic curriculum
93% were very or extremely satisfied with their preparation for the academic challenges of college
90% would probably or definitely attend a girls’ school if they had it to do all over again.
Alumnae were also asked to compare their education and preparation at girls’ school with that of their female college peers who attended coed high schools.
85% agreed that girls’ schools provide a greater “can do” attitude
84% agreed that girls’ schools provide more leadership opportunities
83% agreed that girls’ schools provide a better environment for personal development
80% felt more prepared to participate in class discussions in coed classrooms
74% agreed that girls’ schools provide more encouragement in math, science, and technology
Nearly all of the alumnae expected to have careers and professions, and the majority felt it was important to hold positions of leadership and to contribute to their communities. It is gratifying to note that these results are consistent with the research conducted with older alumnae five years ago.
Collaboration
Research relies on collaboration. Since our founding 15 years ago, our insightful and talented Co-Executive Directors, Meg Moulton and Whitney Ransome, have reached out to like-minded groups and sought collaborative relationships to inform our work and support our schools and students. These include the Women’s Sports Foundation, the Women’s College Coalition, the Girl Scouts, the Ms. Foundation, Independent Means, the International Museum of Women, Game Face, the White House Project, and CAMFED whose director Ann Cotton will be speaking this afternoon. Our collaborations increase exponentially our impact and the opportunities for girls beyond the bounds of our individual schools. We are pleased to honor our long association with the Girls’ School Association in this joint conference.
Since our founding in 1991, the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools has launched strategic initiatives to put research into practice, placing us on the national and international platform as academic advocates for what works best for girls. Our schools are models of innovation, having developed best educational practices around such topics as:
Girls’ Math & Science
Girls’ & the Physical Sciences
Girls & Technology
Girls & Engineering in partnership with major universities
Financial Literacy in partnership with non-profit entrepreneur Joline Godfrey, who is with us here in London
Girls & Global Citizenship
Girls & Leadership in conjunction with our own annual conference, the Alliance of Girls’ Schools (Australasia), and the White House Project. On our web site, we are documenting girls’ reactions to this season’s first television program placing a woman in the White House, entitled Commander in Chief. With 16 million viewers, this is the most highly viewed new program this season, further reflecting the growing recognition of the importance of showing women leading in strong, meaningful ways.
We are collaborating with leaders in their fields to support the continued professional development of our teachers and leaders with workshops such as these, as well as conferences and publications. In 2005, we collaborated with Simmons School of Management, which offers the only women-only Masters in Business Administration program, to develop a Strategic Leadership Institute for female heads of school and senior administrators in girls’ schools for the purpose of training a new generation of women leaders. We will offer this again in November 2007 and open our enrollment again to national and international women working on behalf of girls.
Each year, our annual conference held in June brings together educators from our own organization and our international affiliates to consider innovations and opportunities in our field. Summary reports from last year’s conference, The Well-Being of Girls: Strategies for Life, are available on the NCGS web site. Next year’s conference, The Right Stuff: Girls and Women as Pioneers and Pacesetters, will take place in Boston in late June. We would welcome your participation.
On a more personal note, I encourage each of you create your own collaborative relationships. Thanks to connections made through our two organizations in 1999, my own school has collaborated with 13-schools in 9 countries to form our own association with other girls’ schools named for Queen Margaret of Scotland. Together we plan exchanges and joint ventures with the goal of fostering global awareness in our students and faculty. Students, teachers, administrators, original music, and emails are all circulating around the world and among our schools.
Communication
And, now, we come to my last point: communication. Excellence must be communicated in order to capitalize on its own energy. Today, girls’ schools are very much in the news and part of the national and international conversation. In the United States, we have been on the front page of our national newspapers (The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal) and on national television and radio (CNN, ABC, and National Public Radio).
Behind this energy is considerable thought and planning. Since our founding, we have reached out to our own schools and the press drawing attention to our research, initiatives, schools, and girls. Carolyn Colletti, our Director of Communication, maintains a dynamic website, www.ncgs.org, providing resources, information, and interactive opportunities for educators, students, and all those interested in the education of girls. In addition, she provides templates for our own directors of communication and resource materials for our teachers.
Within our schools, websites, newsletters, magazines, and press releases translate the girls’ school experience for our graduates, current and prospective families and teachers, as well as those less close to our communities. Women’s education and leadership receive national recognition in such publications as the recent Newsweek feature on women leaders, their education, responsibilities, and leadership styles.
This conference provides us with the next step as advocates for girls individually and internationally. From this conference where our two organizations have gathered representatives from nine countries, we can take away best practices in the education of girls, new partnerships for our schools, and a renewed resolve to continue our commitment to research, collaboration, and communication.
Our history tells us that what we do matters. Let the future show the strength of our resolve in the lives that our students lead and the leadership that our schools and organizations continue to demonstrate. We cannot be complacent. It is our responsibility to model best practices and to lead by example as we educate young women to make a difference in the world. Not just our girls, but all girls, are counting on us. Thank you for your commitment to our shared mission.
Margaret R. Broad
National Coalition of Girls’ Schools, President
St. Margaret’s School, Head of School
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