For years, Garcia and its “sister” school, Bertha Sadler Means Young Women's Leadership Academy, formerly known as James E. Pearce middle school, were considered some of the worst schools in Texas. Former teachers and the state education commissioner publicly criticized Pearce’s performance. During the 2013–2014 academic year, Pearce ranked worse than 98.5% of middle schools in Texas on state test performance, according to the Texas Education Agency.

Ask kids and teachers who attended or taught at both schools, and they’ll all say something had to be done. “It was a dirty school,” said 15-year-old Hamza, a former Pearce student now in ninth grade who said he felt uncomfortable and distracted there because of “all the fighting and sex stuff” that went on. “Kids were even having sex in the bathrooms. At one point, it got so bad that I really didn’t even want to go there anymore.”

In August 2014, after years of district debate, Pearce and Garcia reopened as two single-sex middle schools. Aside from the fancy new names, the schools now offer their predominantly low-income, minority students uniforms and an “inclusive atmosphere that is free of some of the social distractions that exist in mixed-gender classrooms,” according to the Austin Independent School District’s website.

More vague are the mysterious “gender-specific strategies” the district says it now employs. According to proponents, sex segregation will provide kids — nearly all of whom are economically disadvantaged students of color — with a fighting chance to get a college degree. Plus, the district says, students who choose to attend the schools “will learn respect, responsibility, and honor.” Many parents who opted to send their kids to the new schools say they’re already happy with the results.

“I love this school,” said Maria Ortega, whose 12-year-old daughter attends Bertha Sadler Means. “It teaches girls that they don’t just have to get married and stay home.”

Yet critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), say the single-sex schools are illegal.

On Monday, in response to what it said were “numerous inquiries” about the legality of single-sex classes, the Department of Education issued new clarifying guidelines for K–12 schools. Those that choose to offer single-sex classes must be clear about their goals (“improving academic achievement” counts), ensure that enrollment is completely voluntary, and conduct periodic evaluations every two years, among other mandates. Clearest of all: Schools must “avoid relying on gender stereotypes.”

The guidance "offers a long-awaited, much-needed course-correction for school districts across the country” and "makes clear that such programs violate [federal gender equity law] Title IX, because generalizations about boys' and girls' interests and learning styles cannot be used to justify the use of different teaching methods for male and female students." the ACLU said in a statement.

The ACLU has filed lawsuits against many of these districts, in places where public schools and even youth detention centers have launched single-sex classes based on the premise of hardwired gender differences. There are currently complaints pending in Florida, Idaho, and Wisconsin; the ACLU has successfully settled complaints in Alabama, Louisiana, and West Virginia.

In September, the ACLU filed a complaint asking the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to investigate the Austin Independent School District for unlawful sex and racial discrimination against students. The ACLU believes the district is so desperate to turn around failing schools that they’re experimenting based on little more than the assumption that boys and girls learn differently — with their young, low-income students as lab rats.

The complaint also argues that students were automatically assigned to the programs without a “meaningful opportunity” to opt out. The district disputes that claim — in September, it released a statement saying it had addressed the ACLU’s objections before the change was implemented.

According to the ACLU’s complaint, in order to prepare for the split, administrators attended training sessions with names like “Teaching the Male Brain” and “Sugar and Spice and EVERYTHING Nice? Classroom Strategies for All-Girls.” They were told that boys and girls have inherent developmental differences that impact their learning styles. For example, they learned that girls absorb information better in warmer classrooms and are better at hearing than boys, who need teachers to speak more loudly than they do in all-girl classes.

The complaint claims that administrators read books written by sex-differentiated teaching specialists who believe that boys are better at math because their bodies receive daily jolts of testosterone, while girls have equal skills only “a few days per month” when they experience “increased estrogen during the menstrual cycle.” Some of these so-called experts believe boys should be given Nerf baseball bats to release tension and assigned books with “strong male characters who take dramatic action to change the world” instead of “touchy-feely” books with “weak, disabled male characters.” On the other hand, teachers should allow girls to take their shoes off to decrease stress, and give them “concrete manipulatives to touch and otherwise sense, especially when science is being taught.”

Officials at the schools, composed of 97.4% and 94.1% Latino and black schoolchildren, respectively, learned that black boys in particular are more likely to be “aggressive” and “not as neat” — although it was unclear whom they were being compared with.