Berkeley Middle School has launched a pilot program to see if segregating students into same-sex classes affects academic performance, according to the Virginia Gazette. Currently, 350 of the school’s students separate for their Civics and Science classes every other day. The program was launched after assistant principal Ed Van Dyke ran a same-sex summer school program where about 80 percent of teachers said students seemed more focused and driven. “With the hormones, distractions are natural at this age,” principal Karen Swann said. “We wanted to see if there would be an impact.”

Read the full article here: http://www.vagazette.com/news/va-vg-berkeley-classroom-pilot-0912-20120912,0,2383377.story