Opportunity to learn via public education has origins in the mid-nineteenth-century as a response to Horace Mann's argument that educating girls as well as boys would build a collectively more prosperous society. Over the years, educational reform through the judicial and legislative branches of government has continued to balance opportunity to learn for all children in public schools, i.e. Brown vs. the Board of Education (1954), the Educational Amendment of 1972 (Title IX), and the 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). However, longitudinal data available through the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) appears to show growing academic success for girls while simultaneously depicting flagging achievement for boys who have plateaued in math and science and lost ground in reading. Not only are national assessments showing a longitudinal decline in academic achievement for boys, similar studies indicate that girls are outpacing boys in high school graduation rates, college entrance and graduation levels, and post graduate success. In 2006, this evidence led the United States Congress to amend Title IX to allow single-sex classrooms for those to whom such an environment was indicated as appropriate and equitable (Elementary and Secondary Education Act, 2007). These recent shifts in the balance of educational attainment between genders have promulgated discussion about the "boy crisis" in America. This research study examined the accuracy of such a claim in the reading achievement between high school boys and girls as measured by the ACT reading test in a Midwestern state. Data was disaggregated by educational placement, income, and race/ethnicity. The study found that across all years and all groups studied, girls outperformed boys on the ACT literature/arts reading subtest; however, boys tended to outscore girls on the social/studies science subtest of the portion of the ACT reading test. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]