As international statistics show a widening educational achievement gap by gender, with girls as a group achieving at higherlevels in most academic subjects than boys, it is vital to examine parental perceptions of their children’s gender relating toeducational achievement. This study, utilizing social learning and parental involvement theories, and grounded theorymethodology, involved 40 parent interviews in the United States and Korea regarding parental perspectives and attitudestowards their secondary school children’s educational achievement. Findings included; (1) sons are regarded as exhibitingfewer school success skills and thinking less about the future than daughters, (2) daughters are seen as more compliant,expending more effort while having a more positive attitude towards school than sons, (3) more effort is required to motivatesons than daughters, and (4) positive male role models for boys are often lacking.