Why does coeducation work for Shipley? “Our teachers understand that every student is an individual,” says Head of School, Steven S. Piltch, “an individual who brings different particular strengths to the School. They strategize about the best methods to reach all of their students so that everyone has the chance to thrive.” Sense of community and a nurturing environment are other key reasons for Shipley’s success as a coed school. In the relationships students have with their teachers, coaches, and advisors it is clear that a sense of community and working together for a common goal are the driving forces in the success of each student.

According to ADVIS (the Association of Delaware Valley Independent Schools), families choose independent schools because they want to match their child’s strengths with the mission of the school. “Independent schools collectively shape their students for lives of success: success in school, in college, in life. Students are part of a supportive community comprised of teachers, administrators, alumni, and parents.”

This is accomplished at Shipley by recognizing the strengths of both boys and girls and providing opportunities for their ultimate success. Even with a rigorous academic curriculum, there is still time for activities, and any given Activity period finds equal numbers of girls and boys participating in Model UN, community service, or student government.

It is Shipley’s focus on the individual, its fairness to each person on his or her own terms that makes coeducation at Shipley successful. “Coeducation,” says Josh Berberian “exposes both boys and girls to the possibility of different kinds of academic discussion.” Unlike students at the all-boys’ and coeducational schools in which Berberian taught previously, “Shipley students on the whole are more supportive of each other, more genuine and sincere. They’re more trusting, more willing to take risks.” “Everyone,” says Greg Coleman, Upper School French teacher and Director of Admissions, “needs to find his or her voice. Girls need to know that it’s all right to speak up; boys need to know that it’s all right to listen.”

Certainly, girls have plenty of strong female role models at Shipley, whether in Latin and English or math and science, some of whom are themselves alumnae. Boys have supportive role models, too. Jay Jennings was one of Shipley’s first male “lifers.” He graduated in 1991 and came back to teach at Shipley in 1995. “I take pride in being the first Shipley male graduate employed here full time,” he says, and stresses the importance of being a nurturing male role model.

Exposing students to different views and different styles of discourse and maintaining an atmosphere of trust are all simply good educational practice. In this climate boys and girls do equally well in the classroom. In math and science Shipley girls sign up for advanced courses in numbers roughly equal to those of boys. Over the last five years 22% of Shipley graduates, were recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, roughly in equal numbers of boys and girls. Similarly, also in roughly equal numbers of girls and boys, 98 percent of those students who have taken the AB Calculus Advanced Placement Exam, earned a score of three or better. While there might not always be gender balance in any given class, over the last twelve years, the breakdown of students in advanced placement math and science courses was about 50 percent each. Shipley students’ SAT scores continually rank among the top four among independent schools in the Philadelphia area. These results support the assertions of the Board and Head’s evaluation in the early 70’s that Shipley’s mission was uniquely and profoundly suited to the education of both boys and girls and especially to the education of boys and girls together.

Posted Oct 27, 2004