Dr Molly Warrington is a Lecturer in the University of Cambridge. She has published extensively on gender issues as well as contributing to international conferences. Her recent experience includes the management of a substantial research project of 24 schools working to reduce gender differentials in eastern England. With a Cambridge University background in the social sciences she has considerable experience of qualitative research methods; she has also conducted projects on housing and homelessness, and the geography of domestic violence.

Mr Michael Younger is director of PGCE courses within the University of Cambridge's Faculty of Education, and has developed the 200 primary and secondary schools in the Cambridge partnership into one of the most highly-rated providers in the country. He has worked extensively with Molly Warrington on gender-based projects over the last six years and has published widely on gender issues. He has also contributed to research on mentoring and the development of expertise amongst newly-qualified teachers.

Professor John Gray is Dean of Research at the Faculty of Education in the University of Cambridge. He is particularly interested in factors associated with pupil progress and performance. He contributed the statistical analyses to the Ofsted review of Recent Research on Gender and Educational Performance and is Co-directing a DfES-funded project on Building Support for Transfers and Transitions, which has a gender dimension. He has also been involved in school improvement projects in several LEAs serving disadvantaged areas across the country.

Professor Jean Rudduck is Professor of Education in the University of Cambridge. She has an international reputation for developing innovative approaches to teacher-led change. During the last three years she has undertaken projects for the DfES, the ESRC, the Nuffield Foundation and Ofsted, as well as various LEAs, and is currently co-directing a DfES-funded project on Transitions and Transfers. She served on the Training Board of the ESRC and was recently made a member of the National Educational Research Forum.

Ms Ros McLellan joined the Cambridge Education Faculty Research Team in September 2000 to work exclusively on the boys' underachievement project. Having eight years of secondary school teaching experience, she is well placed to conduct and facilitate research in schools. With a Cambridge University background in the social sciences, she has used qualitative and quantitative research methods, and is currently writing up a PhD on student motivation in the context of a lower secondary science scheme (CASE).

Mr Peter Jackson retired from the post of Professional Tutor in an Essex comprehensive school in 1996 to take up a part-time appointment as a core and link lecturer on the Homerton secondary PGCE course, and has since contributed to several other courses at the College. He had previously led the East Anglian Section of Raising Achievement in Mathematics, a national project based at the West Sussex Institute, and was a member of the Essex Mathematics Advisory Team.

Ms Eve Bearne taught in London for twenty years before joining the National Writing Project as project officer. This involved working with schools and teachers across the country. After that she joined Homerton College as a Senior Lecturer in Language. She has published books on language, literacy and literature in education and now spends her time in curriculum development and research. She is currently editing the work of the Essex Writing Project which focused on gender and visual approaches to learning.

Mrs Suzanne Carter is a deputy headteacher of a primary school, seconded to the project for one day a week. Her responsibilities in school include English and Assessment. She has fourteen years of teaching experience, including previous secondments as an LEA advisory drama teacher and as an Ofsted inspector. For her research-based MA she presented a case study of school monitoring and evaluation methods.

Ms Jennifer Reynolds has been a primary school teacher for eleven years, during which time she has been part of senior management teams. She has researched several areas of children's literacy, including gender differences in responding to texts. She has contributed to books, and has co-authored a data-handling programme published by Longman Logotron. She has taught on the undergraduate teaching course at Homerton, and is one of Cambridgeshire's Leading Literacy teachers.

Ms Ruth Kershner is a lecturer in the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education, with interests in special educational needs, inclusion and psychological aspects of teaching and learning. She previously worked as a learning support teacher, primary teacher and child care worker in mainstream and special school settings. Her research has focused on children's and teachers' views about school, including their perceptions of 'working hard'. She has a particular interest in the promotion of school-based research by teachers.