Catholic and Coeducational Advantage

The Catholic School Difference

Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Baltimore provide a Christ-centered education that is academically excellent and empowers students to reach their full potential – spiritually, intellectually, physically, socially and morally. In June of 2018, the Wall Street Journal ran a piece on a new study that found statistically meaningful evidence that students in Catholic schools exhibited less disruptive behavior than their counterparts in other schools. “According to their teachers, Catholic school children argued, fought, got angry, acted impulsively, and disturbed ongoing activities less frequently,” the authors write. Specifically, students in Catholic schools “were more likely to control their temper, respect others’ property, accept their fellow students’ ideas, and handle peer pressure.” In other words, they exhibited more self-discipline.

At John Carroll, our dedicated faculty and staff not only teach school subjects, but model and help develop a moral compass that will guide students for the rest of their lives. We see the results every day–in students who are respectful, compassionate and focused on becoming true servant leaders.

Coeducational Advantage

According to research performed by the American Council for Co-Educational Schooling (ACCES), co-education enhances communication and collaboration among young men and women while building relationships. Learning how to solve problems and work effectively with members of the opposite sex is a fundamental skill that is imperative for success beyond the educational setting.

Further, recent evidence suggests there is no correlation to improved performance or outcomes for single-sex schools, and that in fact, single-gender school students face an adjustment period to interacting with both genders when heading into the workforce, or even college. In 1999, the first public middle school in the U.S. debuted entirely single-gender math classes, but reversed that decision in 2007 after issues with disappointing test scores. Additionally, research funded by the National Science Foundation and published by the American Psychological Association in 2014 that analyzed 184 studies of more than 1.6 million students around the world found no significant benefits for boys or girls in single-sex classes.

John Carroll is proud to offer the only coeducational, Catholic high school experience in northeastern Maryland.