In two words: not likely. Here’s my attempt to draw Obama into the issue during the Pennsylvania primary. Shockingly, he didn’t bite.

Last week I sat in a session with top McCain education adviser Lisa Graham Keegan, pictured here. I didn’t ask specifically about boys, but I did walk away with a clear notion that things would change dramatically with No Child Left Behind in a McCain administration. That law, which has done a lot to shine a light on performance gaps between whites and blacks, does nothing to expose gender gaps. Gender isn’t one of the gaps principals are required to close. Understandably, principals instead focus on what gets them through the day. Unfortunately, however, as researchers are discovering, you can’t really separate the two.

Whether either candidate would do anything to change that is unclear. McCain wants to give school districts more freedom to experiment, which would result in more charter schools and probably more experiments with single-sex education. Charters such as KIPP ( which are co-educational) do an amazing job with boys. And the all-boys Excellence Charter School in New York is one of my favorites. The surge in single-sex public schools worries me a bit. Many, I fear, are not prepared to succeed.

Obama’s the bigger puzzler. He has expressed interest in school reforms frowned upon the unions (which have the power to get him elected) but during the primaries, and so far in the general election, he has kept any reformist instincts concealed. The speculation he has a deep reformist streak, however, is logical: If there’s one issue he’s likely to veer center on, education is it.

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