In our district, the gifted program used to skew toward having many more males than females in the lower grades--using similar selection criteria (COGAT + achievement). The principal at the time attributed this gender bias to the idea that bored boys tend to be more disruptive than bored girls, which leads the parents of the disruptive boys to choose to enroll them in the gifted program. She also thought that parents were more comfortable busing their young sons to the other side of the city to enroll in the program. By 5th grade, the gender ratio in the program tended to be more balanced. The program now seems more equally split between males and females, but that might be due to the fact that it is now located at multiple sites in different areas of the city.