The Associated Press

MADISONVILLE, Ky. - Officials at two Hopkins County middle schools are praising a new program that separates boys from girls in some core classes.

Sixth-graders at James Madison Middle School are divided by gender in basic subjects, and all math classes at South Hopkins Middle School are following the same blueprint.

"The sixth and seventh grade is when the hormones really kick in," said James Madison principal Steve Gilliam. "The girls tend to not want to show off in front of the boys, so they keep quiet, and the boys just want to show off."

Similar gender-specific classes have sprung up at schools around the country. At Carter G. Woodson Middle School in New Orleans, La., all classes were separated by gender when kids returned to school earlier this month.

In Idaho, however, Kimberly Middle School in Boise ended its two-year experiment in single-gender classes, hindered by a limited budget and unequal numbers of boys and girls.

In Hopkins County, site-based council members told teachers that if the separate classes didn't work, they could return to traditional, mixed-gender classes after the Christmas break.

But teachers so far like the new format, said Twila Moore, chair of the math department at South Hopkins Middle School.

"For me, I've taught 26 years and this is the first year I've ever done anything like this - I absolutely love it," Moore said. "It seems like the boys come in and they're more focused. They're ready to work, and they're not trying to impress somebody or be a clown."

The school's math department looked into the possibility of gender-based classes for a number of years before getting permission from the site-based council.

"So far, so good," Moore said. "We all really like it. We see less discipline problems. It seems like they're more focused."

Sixth-graders at James Madison are together for two exploratory classes each day, including physical education, art, band, home economics and computers.

"They also eat lunches together and homeroom, so it's not like we've sent them to opposite ends of the building," Gilliam said.

James Madison also has a few gender-based math and science classes - offered on a trial basis - for seventh-graders. Research has shown the effort is most successful when there's a gradual phasing out as students get older, Gilliam said, with all sixth-grade classes separated, half of seventh-grade classes, and only math and science in eighth grade.

"We want to do all we can to eliminate distractions," Gilliam said.