Acknowledge and commit to closing the reading and writing gap between boys and girls in K-12 education.

According to the US Department of Education, girls outperform boys in k-12 literacy testing (reading and writing) in all 50 states. The literacy gender gap is significantly larger than the math gender gap favoring boys, yet the Administration and the Department of Education is silent on the issue. The Department of Education has several initiatives to encourage and improve girls performance in math and science including a section under the Doing what Works program. A search of their website yields no similar effort to encourage boy's interest in reading and writing. By supporting this petition we request the Obama administration to acknowledge and take an active role in closing the reading and writing achievement gap between boys and girls.