“At Visitation, we believe in the limitless potential of girls. In our all-girls Middle and Upper Schools, girls hold every leadership position. They participate in classrooms where they are confident to express their opinions, to use their voices and to be their authentic selves. Learning and exploring in an all-girls' environment empowers Visitation students to see themselves as the leaders, innovators, artists, champions and  changemakers our world needs.” Dr. Jennifer Bigelow, Head of School

Did you know? 

Girls’ schools are more relevant today than ever before.

We believe a school for girls is better than a school with girls.

Girls’ schools are places where girls take center stage. They occupy every seat in student government, every spot on the math team, and every position in the robotics club. In fact, every aspect of a girls’ school – from the classroom to the athletic field to the academic program – is designed for girls. A girls’ school environment adds opportunities for girls.

Whether a girl wants to be an astronaut, ambassador, author, or attorney, she needs to know—not just think, but really know, deep down—that there’s nothing that can stand in her way. That’s the incredibly important message girls’ schools send to girls each and every day.

That message, embedded in the nature of girls’ schools, provides powerful, relevant advantages and creates the best environments for girls to learn, grow, and develop.

At their heart, girls’ schools are places of leadership. Places where community and collaboration, agency and self-efficacy flourish. But most of all, girls’ schools are places of incredible innovation.

Whether it was a school that was founded 200 years ago or 2 years ago, inevitably, it’s a school that involves trailblazing, creating spaces where teachers can challenge limits, and inspiring girls to imagine and explore possibilities that perhaps they had never considered before.

Quick Facts from The International Coalition of Girls Schools

Girls’ schools empower students to become bold leaders.

• At girls’ schools, girls demonstrate great confidence in female leadership and become increasingly interested in leadership positions themselves. Data suggests that girls at coeducational schools actually become less interested in leadership positions with age.
• Programs at girls’ schools focus on the development of teamwork over other qualities of leadership, while the qualities of confidence, compassion, and resilience also ranked prominently.
• 93% of girls’ school graduates say they were offered greater leadership opportunities than coeducated peers and 80% have held leadership positions since graduating from high school.

Girls’ school graduates help bridge racial and cultural divides.

When compared to coeducated peers, graduated of girls’ school are more likely to:

• to help promote racial understanding
• value improving their understanding of other countries and cultures
• count their desire to understand others with different beliefs as a strength
• view their ability to work cooperatively with diverse people as strength

Girls’ school graduates impact their communities.

When compared to coeducated peers, graduates of girls’ school are more likely to:

• become involved in environmental programs
• deem it essential to participate in community social action programs
• be frequently active in volunteer work

Girls’ schools graduate informed, globally minded changemakers.

• Graduates of girls’ school are committed to civic duty. When compared to their coeducated peers, they are more likely to plan to vote in elections and to value keeping up with political affairs and influencing political structures.
• Girls’ school graduates are 10% more likely than coeducated peers to have a political discussion with friends. They also find it essential to keep current with political issues.

Girls’ school students strengthen their voice and are encouraged to speak freely without interruption.

• Academic studies and countless anecdotes make it clear that being interrupted, talked over, shut down or penalized for speaking out is nearly a universal experience for women when they are outnumbered by men.
• Girls’ school students are more likely than their female peers at coeducational schools to experience an environment that welcomes an open and safe exchange of ideas. Nearly 87% of girls’ school students feel their opinions are respected at their school compared to only 58% of girls at coeducational schools.
• Students who attended girls’ schools, compared to coeducated peers, are more likely to publicly communicate their opinion about a cause.

A girl occupies every role in all-girls learning environments.

• Girls’ school students show more confidence compared to girls in coeducational schools, which might explain why girls in girls’ schools typically do better academically and are more likely to choose to study STEM subjects than girls in coed schools.
• The majority of girls’ school graduates report higher self-confidence than their coeducated peers.
• All-girls settings seem to provide girls a certain comfort level that helps them develop greater self-confidence and broader interests, especially as they approach adolescence.

All-girls learning environments capitalize on girls’ unique learning styles.

• To be successful, students need more than just a feeling of support. That support must translate into actions geared toward student success. Nearly 96% of girls’ school students report receiving more frequent feedback on their assignments and other course work than girls at coeducational schools.
• More positive academic and behavioral interactions were observed between teachers and students in single-sex schools than in the comparison to coeducational schools.

Girls take center stage in all-girls learning environments.

• The robust learning environment encountered by students at girls’ schools…provides unequivocal support for the value of an all-girls educational environment.
• Single-sex programs…create an institutional and classroom climate in which female students can express themselves freely and frequently and develop higher order thinking skills.
• Emphasizing their ability to learn independently, graduates of girls’ schools more frequently explore topics on their own, even when not required, compared to their coeducated peers.

All-girls learning environments create a culture of achievement.

• Girls’ school graduates are more likely to frequently seek alternative solutions to a problem and more than 2/3 report frequently supporting their arguments with logic, which coeducated graduates are less likely to report doing.
• Females especially do better academically in single-sex schools and colleges across a variety of cultures. …Single-sex schools help to improve student achievement.

• Nearly 80% of girls’ school students report most of their classes challenge them to achieve their full academic potential compared to only 44% of girls at coeducational public schools.

• More than 80% of girls’ school grads consider their academic performance highly successful.
• One hour a week of single-sex education benefits females: females are 7% more likely to pass their first-year courses and score 10% higher in their required second year classes than their peers attending coeducational classes.

All-girls learning environments champion the educational needs of girls as a group currently underrepresented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) majors and careers.

• Girls’ school graduates on average report greater science self-confidence than coeducated peers in their ability to use technical science skills, understand scientific concepts, generate a research question, explain study results, and determine appropriate data collection.
• Girls’ school graduates are 6 times more likely to consider majoring in math, science, and technology compared to girls who attended coeducational schools.
• Compared to coeducated peers, girls’ school graduatess are 3 times more likely to consider engineering careers.
• During the middle school years, girls show a decline in both their performance in math and theIr attitudes towards math. Research suggests that girls’ schools may mitigate the decline when compared with coeducational schools.
• Girls from all-female courses reported more academic interests in computer science or potential to pursue a computing career.
• All-girl environments with girl-only peers helped build community and increased girls’ self-reported amount of learning. Girls felt they could do computing because there were other girls doing it around them.

Research studies conducted around the world—Australia, Caribbean, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States—find that girls’ schools foster increased confidence and interest in math.

• At the start of university, girls’ school graduates in the U.S. rate their confidence in their math skill abilities 10% higher than do their coeducated peers.
• Across the Caribbean islands, girls’ school students consistently have a higher pass rate in mathematics, as well as a higher percentage of distinctions, than girls in coed schools and boys in both single-gender and coed schools.
• In Switzerland, girls in single-gender classes evaluate their math skills more positively and are more likely to attribute their math performance to their own efforts rather than to exogenous talent or luck.

Students in all-girls learning environments are supported by a community of peers, teachers, and school administrators.

• The overwhelming majority of girls’ school students agree to strongly agree that they feel supported at their schools: 95% feel supported by their teachers (compared to 84% of girls at coeducational public schools), 90% report feeling supported by other students (compared to 73%), and 83% feel supported by their school administrators (compared 63%).