The interaction patterns of teachers and students in public and private urban schools was investigated specifically to explore higher order teacher questioning. On the basis of a review of the literature, the authors speculated that patterns of student response to higher order teacher questioning would differ by student gender. Higher order questioning encourages students to think critically, and, therefore, is powerful for learning. Lower order questioning, however, taps only the memorization of facts. The results from this study suggested no gender difference in students' responses to higher order questioning. The 16 teachers observed used predominately lower level questioning patterns in their classrooms.