'You Feel Comfortable In Here' | Girls-Only Baltimore Charter School Seeing Success
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- In the heart of downtown Baltimore, an experiment in education is underway. A city charter school has gone girls-only and is seeing success in doing so.
While in most classrooms in Baltimore you'll find a roughly equal number of boys and girls, some experts suggest it may be time for a change.
"The girls like to think of themselves as a sisterhood, and we like to have them think that way too," said Baltimore Leadership School For Young Women founder Brenda Brown Rever.
Senior Breasia has been a part of that sisterhood for seven years.
"Growing up in an environment with all the same girls, you feel comfortable in here," she said.
That comfort level might be why some studies show that students at single-sex schools perform better. That appears to also be the case at BLSYW.
One hundred percent of their students graduate high school and the same number get accepted to college. The two percent who don't attend college get vocational training.
It's the end result of each student developing a personal success plan.
"We've found that because they take ownership of it and they see that we fully support success plans, we've found that they are successful," said Paula Dofat, the director of college and career services.
That wasn't always the case for some girls who arrived at the school in sixth grade.
"Some of them -- a good many of them -- are three grades behind where they ought to be," Brown Rever said.
School leaders list a lot of reasons why the program works, but the bottom line is the 547 students who attend are expected to do well and are given the tools and motivation to do so.
"The girls are the key, the girls are the important part of our school," Brown Rever said.
