A High School Offers Single-Sex Classes to Top Students

01 December 2010

Michael Bair teaches teamwork, reading, writing, computer skills and public speaking in his ninth-grade English class for boys

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Most American schools have boys and girls in the same classroom. But a public high school in the small, rural town of Boonsboro, Maryland, offers a special program. Top students in the ninth and tenth grades can attend single-sex classes for math, science, English and social studies.

The aim is to help teenagers keep their mind on their work by keeping males and females apart.

Rebecca Brown chooses the students for what Boonsboro High School calls the Academy.

REBECCA BROWN: "What we really want to do is take that top group of kids and take them to the very highest level they can achieve here, so that they're prepared for college."

Placement in the Academy is voluntary. Students are invited after middle school.

They need high marks and test scores and strong teacher recommendations. They also need to be involved in activities.

Almost three hundred fifty students have taken part in the Academy. It began as an experiment in two thousand four.

Michael Bair has been at Boonsboro High for twenty years and directs the Academy. His ninth-grade English class for boys centers on books that he believes boys find interesting.