National Coalition of Girls' Schools

Founded in 1991, the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools (NCGS) is a non-profit membership association serving over 200 Pre-K through 12th-grade girls’ schools throughout the U.S., Canada, and abroad. Its members are independent, public, charter, and religiously-affiliated schools. As the go-to place for girls’ education, NCGS provides its members professional development opportunities like international conferences and regional symposiums, research on the benefits and outcomes of girls’ schools, advocacy outreach to families and the media, and networking events for girls’ school educators to connect and collaborate.

The National Coalition of Girls' Schools (NCGS) is the leading advocate for girls' schools, connecting and collaborating globally with individuals, schools, and organizations dedicated to educating and empowering girls.

In the late 1980s, two educators, Rachel Belash, Head of Miss Porter's School (CT) and President of the Coalition of Girls’ Boarding Schools and Arlene Gibson, Head of Kent Place School (NJ) and President of the Coalition of Girls’ Day Schools, each issued a call to action among their respective all-girls boarding and day school colleagues. These visionary women had no doubt about the value and benefit of all-girls education because of their own deep and well-founded understandings of how girls learn and succeed. Their goal: to systematically document those benefits and share that information broadly.

These professionals knew their observations and understandings would be strengthened through quantitative research. Accordingly, in 1988 and 1990, two different yet related studies were undertaken:

In 1987, Rachel Belash contacted heads of girls’ boarding schools urging them to collaborate on a market research project to respond to declining enrollments at their schools. A steering committee was formed, and in 1988, the firm Ransome/Maguire was hired to conduct a study.

In six hundred phone interviews with prospective and current parents of girls’ boarding schools across the country, girls’ schools were cited for their academic excellence and their ability to provide a communal environment that encouraged personal and academic exploration in a supportive culture. Girls' schools were seen as ideal settings for adolescent girls since they supported risk-taking, encouraged academic excellence, prepared girls for college and the real world, and fostered a sense of leadership and self-development. However, one troubling finding was the perception among many of the respondents that coed schools had stronger programs in math and science. Educators at girls’ schools were astonished by this perception, and this finding led CGBS to focus on showcasing the strength of girls’ schools in the fields of math and science.

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