Madonna Foundation Programs...

As the Madonna Foundation seeks to support the transformation of young urban women's lives, we also seek to advance Catholic high schools for young women. Our experience with the effectiveness of Catholic high schools for young women on the educational attainment, leadership development and psychological maturation of young women is backed by research. Coleman and Hoffer, in their 1987 Public and Private Schools, compared the experiences of young women in single-sex and co-ed schools and described "An all-female academic experience found that faculty supported and encouraged women more so than a coeducational one." (42)

Bryk, Lee and Holland (1993) have also substantiated our belief that…"attending single-sex schools positively affects academic achievement" as well as the future of young women. Women who attended an all-girls school were more likely to go on to attain bachelor degrees, attend graduate school, assume leadership positions. "Single-sex schools emphasized control and discipline and a more academic orientation…studies reported that girls'schools students evidence less sex-stereotyped attitudes and behaviors" (228).

Research has also made the strong connection between academic achievement and psychological maturation of young women, particularly the development of self-esteem. "Girls and women have a host of special self-esteem problems related to their gender which need to be understood and addressed" (University of the State of New York, 1989,1). Self-esteem lies at the heart of many educational concerns relating to young women and impacts a number of future issues including academic performance, career options, lack of assertiveness and poor self-image (University of the State of New York, 1989). Self-esteem relates to how individuals estimate their own intrinsic value (2). "Girls with healthy self-esteem have an appropriate sense of their potential, their competence, and their innate value as individuals. They feel a sense of the right to be heard and to express the full spectrum of human emotions… We live in a culture that is ambivalent toward female achievement, proficiency, independence, and a right to a full and equal life" (Orenstein, 1994, xix).

Shortchanging Girls, Shortchanging America (1991) AAUW found that as girls reach adolescence, they experience a significantly greater drop in self-esteem than boys' experience. Research indicates that girls are systemically, if unintentionally, discouraged from a wide range of academic pursuits - particurlay in math and science. This gap in self-esteem and drop in girls' interest in math and science have devastating consequences for the future of girls and the future of our world.

Tech Savvy: Educating Girls in the New Computer Age (2000, AAUW) has made it clear that girls are critical of the computer culture, not computer phobic. Instead of trying to make girls fit into the existing computer culture, computer culture must become more inviting for girls. When it comes to computer culture, the bottom line is that while more girls are on the train, they aren't the ones driving. To get girls "under the hood" of technology, they need to see that it gets them where they want to go. And for a large part of the population, that process must start in the classroom.

Si, Se Puede! Yes, We Can: Latinas in School (2000, AAUW) reports that US schools are not meeting the educational needs of America's fastest growing female minority population - Latinas. The research found that Latinas bring many personal strengths and cultural resources to the schools they attend, but that their schools treat their assets as liabilities. Latinas are lagging behind other racial and ethnic groups of girls in several key measures of educational achievement and have not benefited from gender equity to the extent other groups of girls have. The report provides clear evidence that Latinas face stereotyping and other obstacles that discourage success in school. Ithe report encourages schools to work with and not against Latinas families and communities and the strengths Latinas bring to the classroom. It urges schools to recognize cultural values and help Latinas harmonize these values with girls' aspirations to education and learning. Title IX and Equal Opportunity in Vocational and Technical Education (2001, National Women's Law Center) recently published some eye-opening results of exhaustive research in regard to women's status in technical and vocational schools. "Thirty years after the enactment of Title IX, the patterns of enrollment in vocational and technical programs look shockingly similar to the patterns that existed prior to the passage of the law. Biased counseling, the provision of incomplete information to students on the consequences of their career training choices, sexual harassment of girls who enroll in non-traditional classes, and other forms of discrimination conspire today to create a vocational system characterized by pervasive sex segregation. Young women remain clustered in "traditionally female" programs that prepare them for low-wage careers and do not provide them with training or technical skills necessary to enter high-wage jobs.