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When William Lee learned at a staff meeting last fall that academic performance by black males at Albert Einstein High School was "woefully low," he went home thinking the problem was not with the kids.

"I went home that evening, I was so disturbed by it I just couldn't sleep," said Lee, a literacy coach and English teacher at the Kensington school, and began to think about what variable could be changed to make the boys scholars.

"You change the soil or the environment. The seedlings are going to be the same," Lee said.

Research in hand, Lee proposed an experiment, and at the end of January Einstein unveiled the first deliberately single-gender English course in Montgomery County Public Schools, an attempt to give the boys an excuse to check out the books instead of the ladies.

"It works for males because…you remove the distraction of females and the need to posture," said Lee of the single-gender method, which research indicates works for both sexes. "There's a pathology in males, not all males but some adolescent males, that it's not cool to be smart, and of course they want to try to look cool for their female counterparts."

Lee said the method brings out the boys' competitive nature and encourages positive peer pressure.

It seems to be working. Lee said he pressures the 20 black and Hispanic sophomores—none of whom have been in honors courses in the past—to earn a B average across the board. It's a goal he expects at least half of his students to reach by the end of the quarter.

"On a consistent basis I'm getting e-mails from moms and dads saying ‘This single gender class was a lifesaver for my kid,'" Lee said.

The method has caught the attention of other teachers in the school who would like to try it, Lee said, and the only negative feedback seems to be coming from parents who can't get their children in. There's a waiting list for the next class, and if Principal James Fernandez signs off on the program, it could expand to female-only classes as well, Lee said.

In the classroom Lee crafts a no-nonsense environment, calling on and calling out students that aren't paying attention to his questions about Aristotle. They don't do it often.

"It's tough love," said student Malcolm Crockett. "He grades our writing pretty hard. He'll make us write a paper over and over."

"But it's because he knows we can do it," said David Nolasco.

The boys agree Lee's manner and high expectation for them has made them more confident and better students. And not having girls around? The boys sum it up with a group shrug.

"You get used to it," said Richard Scott.

A large element of the class is taking field trips and doing service projects. Nolasco said a trip to the office of U.S. Rep. Christopher Van Hollen Jr. (D-Dist. 8) "opened my eyes for how the legislature works," and next week the boys are headed for a White House tour.

For that excursion, Lee demanded they all meet at JCPenney's over the weekend to ensure they have something appropriate to wear.

It's all part of Lee's holistic philosophy toward education. He does interventions in partnership with parents to help kids who have trouble with everything from getting out of bed to misbehaving at home, and credits the parents highly with trusting him with an experimental class. Because he only teaches a few classes, he said, he has time for the more personalized approach.

And he cautions that the single-gender technique, though effective, is not "a panacea."

"These guys are not perfect," Lee said. "They make mistakes, they get into trouble, they make bad choices. But we don't beat them up over it. We help work through it."

That means the boys frequently spend time with Mr. Lee through their lunch break and after school, but it's all a process they say they benefit from.

"I think the way he does it would be kind of an equal exchange," student Jevon Gray said. "He gives us knowledge, he makes us work hard and in return he rewards us and we get the knowledge."