I do not have any stats in front of me but I can probably get my hands on them for you... I can not speak on behalf of the male population but girls do better in single gender schools. It does not make as much of a difference in Elementary school but somewhere toward the end of Jr. High and definately in High School many girls' performance in school begins to drop. This is attributed to a growing awareness of men and is their attempt to not "show up" male classmates or appear too smart. Girls who at one time would have been in the top of their class in math or science will begin to display only an average performance.
Also, for girls, rivalry is intensified when boys are thrown into the mix. This is one reason that Middle School is brutal for most girls. Personally, I still carry some scars from Middle School...but the competition is fierce to gain the attention of males and many times it is accomplished at the expense of "less cool" girls.

I have not read the linked article, but I am totally a fan of seperating boys and girls in educational settings.

Amy, you have very interesting thoughts on this point. I definitely can let my "equality" blinders get the best of gender distinctions that are pretty sound. Nonetheless I am still not in favor of gender specific public schools. One other reason, besides my rather snyde commentary above is the general cost. As one school must be set up for one gender, so must one be set up for the other gender. This takes land and money that are scarce. One possible way to rectify the issues is to have joint "play space" such as soccer fields and what not, but I imagine that the middle school competition you discussed occurred most flagrantly in play spaces than classrooms.