Vicki and I both attended single-sex high schools: Westlake for Vicki, Benson Polytechnic for me. Both are co-ed now. There are still single-sex high schools: about 400 public and 400 Catholic.
Vicki went to Westlake because it was a great private school. I went to Benson because it was the best public school in Portland (admission was based on grades and recommendations, as opposed to proximity), and because it was all-male. And because it had a 250-watt AM radio station. I was shy and awkward around girls, wanted to go to MIT, and felt I would be less distracted in an all-boys school (not to mention more able to become a broadcaster).
Research says single-sex education results in less socialization: students don’t learn to work with and befriend members of the opposite sex. Probably, based on my experience.
I went on to what was, at the time, essentially an all-male college. MIT was 10% women in the class of 1974. I loved MIT women, loved being around them. Still, many of the same problems there. Now that it’s 50-50, I am sure things are better.
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In my application to Student House, the only coed living group at tech at the time, I mentioned that coming from an all-boys school, I was interested, as part of my college education, to practice living with women "as people." Perhaps that got me in. Am I the only person bothered by the inability of English speakers to use the terms "sex" and "gender" appropriately. When you wrote of single sex education, I thought at first you meant instruction in homosexual techniques. While we're on the subject, I recently got a questionaire that asked "What is your current gender?"