Westside Elementary School in Spring Hill has decided to stop a program that separated students by gender in its classes.
Same-gender classes were set up eight years ago as an option to see if separating boys and girls would help them learn better.
The experiment will come to an end with the school year.
Principal Kristina Garofano said it was hard to come up with some solid, long-term evidence that the program worked because so many kids who started out in the same-gender classes have left the school.
"Not because they didn't want to be in the program any longer," she said. "It's because they had unenrolled from Westside. We looked at how many of our fifth graders who started here at Westside and joined the program are still currently in the program and only 9 out of 39 were still in the program."
Garofano is sorry to see the program go because she says it did help some kids, especially girls. Amy Tilton is also sorry to see it go. She's a parent and teacher at the school and says the classes really helped her daughter.
"She had the opportunity to flourish with the strategies that were geared toward girls," Tilton said.
Same-gender classes were set up for each grade and parents had the option to enroll their child.