Prior to the division of the classes based upon gender, each of the fifty fifth graders was given a survey to complete (see Appendix B). The author used this survey to determine the attitudes of the female students who had been, up to this point in the academic year, participating in a coeducational math class. Students were asked simply to identify themselves by their gender (i.e. mark whether they were a boy or girl). All papers remained anonymous.
In the first question, students were asked to identify their favorite subject. Forty per cent of the girls in fifth grade chose the language arts (reading, English, or spelling) as their favorite subject. Twenty-eight per cent chose math as their favorite subject. The remaining thirty-two per cent chose either science (eight per cent) or history (twenty-four per cent). For a summary of the findings of the survey see Table 1.