All-Girl Difference
What makes Our Lady of Mercy School for Young Women the best educational choice for your daughter? At Mercy, girls enjoy not just equal opportunity, but every opportunity. Our students are comfortable in class, so they are more receptive to learning and our talented faculty adopts instructional strategies tailored to girls’ unique learning styles. Mercy’s safe and nurturing environment encourages our students to display their intelligence, ask more questions, and encourage each other.
At Mercy, girls take the lead. All student presenters, performers, writers, singers, athletes, student government representatives and club chairs are girls.
Research Shows the Life-Changing Effect of an All-Girls’ Education
Research reveals girls’ school graduates have a clear edge over their co-educated peers. The Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA released a study that identified several key areas in which all-girls schools are better preparing their students for success. Commissioned by National Coalition of Girls’ Schools, Fostering Academic and Social Engagement: An Investigation into the Effects of All-Girls Education in the Transition to University is an update of a 2009 report. These two major peer-reviewed studies spanning Generations Y and Z compare the self-confidence, academic achievement, political engagement, and aspirations of girls’ school graduates to female graduates of co-ed schools. The data reveals “a consistent portrait of girls’ school graduates who are more engaged academically and socially than their co-educated peers.”
More than 80% of the 4,200 students surveyed reported they were better prepared to succeed in a co-ed world precisely because they attended an all-girls school.
When compared to their female peers at co-ed schools, girls’ school graduates have stronger academic skills, are more academically engaged, demonstrate higher confidence in science and math, display stronger presentation skills, display higher levels of cultural competency, and express stronger community involvement. Reflecting on the totality of the findings, the researchers noted the “statistically significant results demonstrate differences in areas of critical importance in the 21st century for women as they enter university and beyond, thus emphasizing the contribution of all-girls schooling for women’s success.”