We study the effect of preferences for boys on the performance in mathematics of girls, using evidence from two different data sources. In our first set of results, we identify families with a preference for boys by using fertility stopping rules in a large population of households whose children attend public schools in Florida. Girls growing up…

There are two parts to socialization, informal and formal. In the United States, informal lessons of socialization come from a child's primary caretaker(s). Imagine a child growing up in this informal setting only to see the world from one perspective through that unique experience. Later the child goes into a formal school setting, to realize…

In 2006, the George W. Bush Administration issued new Title IX regulations that allow for sex-segregated classrooms and schools in public, non-vocational elementary and secondary schools. These regulations provide schools with another condition that allows them to provide sex-segregated programs as long as they meet an "important governmental…

Far fewer males than females work in elementary education today. This deficit may represent an unacceptable balance in elementary teacher gender demographics. The purpose of this study was to examine teacher perceptions of gender-based differences among elementary school teachers. In this mixed-methods study, 217 elementary teachers in four public…

Background/Context: Despite recent gains from a number of students in U.S. schools, African American males continue to underachieve on most academic indices. Despite various interventions that have attempted to transform the perennial disenfranchisement, their school failure has persisted. Conversely, their failure in schools frequently results in…

This paper examines why the training, certification, selection, and promotion of educational administrators ensures both the continuation of white-male dominance and of leaders oriented toward bureaucratic maintenance. The report draws on a poststructural conceptualization of power--the deployment of power through normalization--to provide an…

A survey of textbooks used in French elementary schools during the Third Republic illustrates that period's attitudes toward female roles, social class, and religious differences. A sample of 126 public school books and 43 Catholic textbooks reveals that young students were presented the ideal of a woman content to remain inside an orderly…