Here are just a few of the practical suggestions that I share with teachers as I travel around the country.The quickest path to an unequitable class is calling on the fastest hand in the west (or east, for that matter). Avoid hand raising and establish other norms. Some teachers write each student's name on a card and use the cards to call on students. I have also seen names dropped into a hat or even written on popsicle sticks and drawn from a cup. The message here is clear: all students are expected to come to class prepared and ready to participate.I have also seen teachers use poker chips in a better way than the chips were originally intended. Each student is given two or three chips, with each chip representing a ticket to talk. Every time the students talk, they place a chip in the center of the room. Once the chips are gone, the student is quiet. And everyone is expected to spend every chip. This once-a-week strategy not only encourages quiet students to participate, but also rations the comments of dominating students, the ones who monopolize classroom discourse.Movement is also useful. Teachers who move around the room call on more students than do those fixed to one point, and teachers who change student seating also increase equitable student participation.—David Sadker is a professor of education at American University in Washington, D.C. He is coauthor of Failing at Fairness: How Schools Cheat Girls.

Empirical evidence from the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that girls are achieving as well as or better than boys, especially minority boys. In Maryland, a state with particularly good disaggregated data, girls perform as well as or better than boys in every ethnic group, in every subject, at every age. With the single exception of advanced science subjects, girls take the same math and science courses as boys, according to studies of high school transcripts. While girls' math scores do lag behind boys' scores on college entrance exams, this does not keep them out of college. Slightly over half of entering college freshmen are women.Equity is related to where students attend school, not gender. Girls in affluent suburbs far outdistance girls and boys in inner-city schools. High-wealth districts provide a demanding curriculum, a full range of courses, and the best teachers and facilities. Students in high-poverty schools get a watered-down curriculum, low expectations, the least trained and lowest paid teachers, and poor or nonexistent facilities.Gender equity can be achieved by setting high standards for what all students should know and be able to do in core academic subjects. These standards must apply across the state to all schools and classrooms. Teachers knowledgeable in their subject matter and skilled in pedagogical techniques can produce high-achieving students. Girls should measure themselves against state standards, not against boys. Boys on the whole are not academic superstars.—Phyllis McClure, an independent consultant on education and equity, spent more than 20 years with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

Any teacher knows there are limits to our influence on young people. Students arrive in our classrooms with their own expectations and ideas, which have been shaped by families, communities, sometimes churches, and interactions with the culture at large.We have a responsibility to provide all students with the best possible education to realize their dreams. "All students" means both boys and girls, who typically follow different developmental paths during their school years. Research suggests that, notwithstanding wide variation among individuals, boys typically need help in restraining tendencies to show off or dominate discussion in class, whereas girls typically need help in speaking out. Both behaviors are more likely to reflect insecurity than self-confidence, although expressed in different ways. Teachers must ease these insecurities and foster a self-confidence that dares to acknowledge what one does not know, even as it dares to strive to know more.Single-gender schools or classrooms frequently serve both girls and boys very well, but not all students choose them. In coeducational environments, teachers can promote gender equity by maintaining evenhandedness in expectations and treatment and, especially, by reminding all students that today girls and boys share the same opportunities for professional or occupational success—provided they prepare themselves to secure it.—Elizabeth Fox-Genovese is the founding director of the Institute for Women's Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. She is the author of Feminism Is Not the Story of My Life.

We can no longer waste half our talent. If you accept the well-documented research on gender bias, then classroom equity becomes both a passion and a necessity.Start by accepting that classroom activities and chores are gender neutral. Eliminate activities that pit boys against girls. Give girls as many opportunities to lead as you give boys. Stop reinforcing sexist practices in our classrooms.Acknowledge the accomplishments of women. Teach that Catherine Greene had as much to do with inventing the cotton gin as Eli Whitney, but could not hold a patent. Remember that we celebrate the birthdays of George Washington (who helped win the vote for fewer than two million white males) and Abraham Lincoln (who helped win the vote for fewer than one million black males), but we rarely learn that Susan B. Anthony (who helped win the vote for 26 American women) was born on February 15. Have your students read The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch. And never let it be said that you can't do something because you're a girl or a boy.The messages that boys can and girls can try still exist. When we level the field and commit to gender equity, we not only empower young women, we also enable young men to have a much wider range of opportunities.—Maxine Giacobbe is the Director of New York State LEAD (Leadership in Educational Administration Development) and is the founding director of the New York State Association for Women in Administration.