One hundred and fifty Chicago girls -– 75 sixth graders and 75 ninth graders -- began classes at the Young Women’s Leadership Charter School recently.

Supporters of the single-sex school, one of just a handful of such publicly-funded schools nationwide, say it frees girls from what they call the intimidating presence of boys in the classroom, and will allow young females to make great strides with the school's focus on science, mathematics and technology.

Other observers say the school -- located on the Illinois Institute of Technology campus -- likely won't live up to its billing. They point to a 1998 study by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), which found a single-sex environment may not offer any advantage for girls, the New York Times reports.

The AAUW study found that many girls do prefer attending classes in a single-sex environment, but there is no evidence of a direct correlation between girls excelling academically because they are separated from male students, the New York Times reports.

The Young Women’s Leadership school, modeled on a sister school in Harlem, fulfills a need among inner-city girls by providing them with a curriculum that focuses on technology, math and science, and that the school provides a private-school education at a fraction of the cost, supporters say.

"We asked for the right to take the poorest kids available and educate them for $5,023 per kid, as opposed to a private school that charges $11,000 tuition," Jeanne Nowaczewski, a local attorney who serves on the school's board of directors, told the times. "We did it because when we talked to teachers, they said they wished they'd been able to catch those students early."

Directors of the charter school expect to add all grades six through 12 in the future. Students not only follow a college prep curricula, they also volunteer in nursing homes every Wednesday and will eventually intern with Chicago companies, the newspaper reports.

At the Chicago campus, the students are selected by lottery. More than 73 percent are African-American, and nearly 80 percent of the school's students come from families that qualify for the free lunch program, the Times reports.

Proponents of the school say studying it will result in a better understanding of single-sex schools that don't focus on children from high-income families, the Times reports.

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