High school juniors Willie Green, left, and Devon Lewis laugh at a joke while discussing their spring 2007 sports literature class Wednesday, November 10th, 2007 at Arlington High School in Saint Paul. (Tyler McKean, Pioneer Press)

Student athletes at Arlington High School in St. Paul say they did something last spring they had never done before: Read every book assigned in class, all the way through.

The course was "Sports and Literature," created last year as a way to increase students' engagement in reading by focusing on a subject many are already passionate about.

"We know these kids love athletics," said Marcus Walker, who coaches football, basketball and track.

Walker said he could see many of his athletes were struggling with schoolwork, and he would lose anywhere from a third to nearly half his players each season because of poor grades.

Black students in St. Paul consistently score lower on reading and math tests than other ethnic groups, as they do in urban districts around the country. At Arlington, which has the highest percentage of students of color (95 percent) and students who receive free or reduced-price lunch (89 percent) of any high school in the city, principal Patty Murphy said the need to improve black students' literacy skills was pressing.

"We were frustrated enough to move from meetings around that issue to action around that issue," Murphy said. Sports became "the carrot that would attract those kids."

The class was offered as an elective second semester. Boys were recruited to sign up, and a dozen - 11 black and one white - made it through.

Each is eligible for sports this fall, and all 12 are featured on life-size posters to be hung around the

school encouraging other students to read.

The students came in with reading levels ranging from fourth-grade to 11th or 12th, said Dianne Lee, who designed and taught the course. Each made at least a half-year's progress in reading between last fall and this fall, Lee said, and one is now reading at a college level.

It's hard to say how much, if any, of those gains are attributable to the class, Lee said, but it's clear from conversations with several of the students that "Sports and Literature" felt different than any class they had ever had.

"The class made us want to read our book at home," said junior Willie Green.

"I'm actually interested in what I'm reading and what I'm doing," said junior Charles Langhorne, who participated in some activities with last year's class and is taking the course this fall.

The absence of girls made a big difference, said senior Josh Johnson. "You could say what you gotta say."

"You stay focused," added junior Eric Brown.

Having only a dozen students in the class was also an advantage. "It was easier for (Lee) to give us extra help if we actually needed it," said Devon Lewis, a junior.

Lee said she gave the boys strategies to help improve their reading, and she picked mostly coming-of-age, young-adult books about male athletes to help them connect to the material.

Johnson said his favorite book was the football-based "Crackback," by John Coy. "I just liked the intensity, because I go through it every day," said Johnson, who plays football and baseball.

Other metro area schools, including Battle Creek Middle School in St. Paul, have implemented single-sex classes, and Murphy said she believes they are effective in certain situations. For example, she said, the school offers a fitness class designed for girls.

A Minneapolis charter school has started offering instruction specifically for African-American boys, and similar experiments are being tried across the country as a way to chip away at the racial achievement gap. But many educators are wary of explicitly dividing students by race, given this country's painful history with segregated schools.

Advocates of single-sex instruction draw on academic research suggesting girls' grades start to decline in math and science when they hit middle school, and boys start to lose ground in English and the humanities. Split the students by sex at a time when hormones are raging, they argue, and you'll cut down the distractions.

There is some evidence, including a 1998 study at Roseville Area Middle School, that single-sex classrooms improve academic achievement. But mostly, proponents claim they simply create more comfortable learning environments that can contribute to academic success.

Coach Walker said if girls had been present in the sports literature class, some of the boys would have been extremely reluctant to read aloud - a class requirement.

Johnson said he never liked to read in front of other students, but in this class, "I wasn't as nervous," he said. "It's all right to mess up."

"If you can read in front of your boys," said Green, "you can read in front of anybody."

Doug Belden can be reached at dbelden@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5136.

WHAT THEY'RE READING

Books on Arlington High's "Sports and Literature" reading list:

"Crackback," by John Coy, about a boy who discovers there is more to life than football.

"High Heat," by Carl Deuker, about a baseball player whose life is suddenly turned upside down.

"Shoeless Joe," by W.P. Kinsella, the basis for the movie "Field of Dreams."

"The Contender," about a boy who learns about being a winner through boxing; and "Raiders Night," about a football player torn between two girls and facing pressure from an overbearing father, both by Robert Lipsyte.

"Slam!" by Walter Dean Myers, about a hotshot Harlem basketball player who transfers to a new school.