At the end of the 2008-09 school year, a Raleigh County middle school asked for the school board’s support in piloting gender-based classes with its sixth-graders.

Today, this pilot project will became a reality.

Sixth-graders at Independence Middle School will receive instruction in core subjects (math, science, social studies and history) separately.

Girls will be taught in one classroom, boys in another.

Independence Middle is the first school in Raleigh County to try gender-based education.

School board president Rick Snuffer says, “If it works, I’d like to go countywide with it.”

Leonard Sax, executive director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, spent Tuesday at Independence Middle conducting staff development with those who will be instructing the gender-based classes.

He held an informational session with the sixth-graders’ parents Tuesday evening.

“On average, the kids are going to do better. But what we’re going to do tonight is very important. You’ve got to engage and empower your parents,” Sax told the teachers Tuesday afternoon.

Sax says wealthy families shouldn’t be the only ones with the option to send their children to a private all-boys or all-girls school.

“We are the pro-choice voice in this debate,” he said.

“Kids are all different. We are not saying that single-sexed education is best for every child. What we are saying is that parents should have a choice.”

In terms of the success of gender-based education, Sax referenced Woodward Elementary School in Deland, Fla.

Thirty-percent of those students are doing better in single-sex classes, he said.

“By putting boys in an all-boys classroom, all of a sudden it’s cool to study. We live in a culture where a lot of boys think it’s not cool to write poetry. In an all-boys classroom, you can make it cool.

“Boys don’t want to be girls, and girls don’t want to be boys ... It narrows what you can do as a person. In an all-boys classroom and vice versa, kids can be themselves. You can eliminate group contrasts. It’s OK for girls to love computer science and engineering and it’s OK to boys to love poetry.”

Sax said the key to gender-based education is employing teaching strategies that simply won’t work in co-ed classrooms.

“Teach the same curriculum to the boys and the same curriculum to girls. But you have to teach it very differently, in a way that that engages boys and engages girls,” he said.

He also referenced the success of Kanawha County’s Anne Bailey Elementary School.

“We’re accustomed to seeing kids improve 30 or 40 percent in the single-sex classes,” Sax said.

At Anne Bailey, data suggest that boys are doing 300 percent better than they were doing in the mixed-gender classes.

In an interview with The Register-Herald Tuesday evening, Anne Bailey Elementary principal Ed Rider said gender-based classes made a significant difference.

“We had a significant gap in achievement between our boys and girls,” Rider said.

After hearing Sax speak at a conference, Rider got approval to pilot gender-based classes with his fifth-graders.

Since, the Kanawha County school has expanded it to grades K-5.

“The way you teach boys and girls is totally different,” Rider said.

“We’ve really had a great success with it. I think it holds a real opportunity for academic achievement. The discipline reduction is just a side benefit. I’m an advocate for it, and I’ve had very, very little opposition.”

There are 540 public schools offering gender-based classes across the country.

Independence’s sixth-graders will come together for co-ed-related arts classes (music, art and computers).

“In the math and English/language arts, the kids can focus on learning. And then in the music class they can come together and have that social interaction,” Sax said.

“I’m not totally persuaded on that point. I can make a good argument on single-sex music class. Nevertheless, many describe a very a good experience with single-sex in core classes and co-ed electives.

Sax founded the National Association for Single Sex Public Education in 2002.