CSBGL is a call to schools and others to embark on a search. A search for a better understanding, better school curricula, better family practices, better community policies - to offer boys and girls a better world.

Welcome
You’ve found the Center for the Study of Boys’ and Girls’ Lives. Since 2001, we’ve conducted research, encouraged public discussion, and been an advocate for boys and girls. Please come inside to learn more about our work, become acquainted with our staff and member schools, discover our services, explore our published research and other resources, and consider whether you might want to join with us to advance boys’ and girls’ lives.

Mission
The Center represents a commitment by a consortium of schools, in partnership with scholars from The University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education and other universities, to conduct research, encourage public discussion, and advocate on behalf of boys and girls. Member schools commit themselves to developing an evidence basis for their curricula, especially in relation to the development of students’ identities as men and women, and support action research projects by faculty teams to address key curricular questions. Using research approaches that give voice to their lived experience, the Center strives to capture the dynamism and agency in students’ development and to help schools promote the widest sense of possibility and greatest hope for integrity in their lives. Its work is explicitly collaborative, engaging boys and girls, their parents, teachers and administrators, as well as university faculty, in a common pursuit of understanding and improvement. Teams from the various schools come together annually to discuss findings, share triumphs and to raise further questions.