When she asks girls what they want to be, fourth-grade girls cite careers such as a veterinarian or surgeon.

But fourth-grade boys scored higher than fourth-grade girls.

Later, all the fourth-grade girls gather in the school's courtyard to practice the next day's mass induction into the Girl Scouts.

A fourth-grade girl was hit by a driver who ran a red light at an intersection; she is in a coma.

"I had a fourth-grade girl tell me she was too old," he said.

For instance, 80 percent of fourth-grade girls have already been on their first diets.

Brigitte Aviles, the mother of a fourth-grade girl, often walks several children home and has twice almost been hit.

A letter from a fourth-grade girl with a father in the military.

One woman, taking her son to his private school in Manhattan, noticed that just four fourth-grade girls were there.

The fourth-grade girls outpaced the boys in language arts, with 68 percent passing compared with 54 percent of the boys.