The findings presented in this report provide initial understandings of the singlesex school environment and its effects from an ecological perspective. In other words, the way in which these single-sex schools operate and who is operating them has relevance in understanding whether and how students learn ―how to do‖ school well and are successful.
Recent findings of the Black and Latino Male Schools Intervention Study (BLMSIS), funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (2006-2009) and directed by the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, show that academic engagement, school climate, and out-of-school activities are key contributors to the academic performance of boys of color in single-sex schools. Among these factors, academic engagement was the single most important contributor to academic performance.
Our findings demonstrate:
- Behavioral engagement (i.e., knowing how to do school) is the greatest predictor of positive achievement among the Black and Latino boys attending these schools.
- More importantly, we found various other school factors that mediate how well students learn to do school, e.g., school climate (including safety, cohesion, and belonging), school-based adult support, perceived instructional quality and rigor, and cognitive engagement in learning.