Men continue to outscore women on SAT, report says

The College Board has announced that there was a significant gender gap in 2001 SAT scores, contributing to an ongoing debate about the validity of standardized testing.

The SAT has been criticized for not being an accurate predictor of a student's abilities in college and for being biased along racial lines.

Last week, the College Board, which administers the SAT, reported that males outscored females by 42 points on the combined verbal and math portions of the SAT exam. This represents a four point increase from 2000.

According to Janice Gams, a College Board spokeswoman, the difference in scores among men and women are not caused by a bias in the SAT. Rather, this schism is largely due to demographics, such as population size, first language, family income and parental education.

"The cause of gender difference in scores is much more complex," Gams said in an e-mail statement. They "are not caused by the SAT, which uses questions that have passed a series of stringent procedures that guarantee fairness."

Following a long-term trend, math scores accounted for most of the difference. The average math score for college-bound males was 533, 35 points above the average female's score.

"In a way, [the gender gap in math scores] is not news to us," Penn Women's Studies Professor Demie Kurz said. "Over the past decade, we've identified that girls don't get as much encouragement, and we're not making any progress in turning these things aroun."

The College Board also cites that, on average, women take more arts and music courses and fewer advanced math courses than men.

The gender gap in Pennsylvania's scores was slightly smaller than the nation's. The state score report indicated a 37-point difference between male and female scores. On average, men scored 32 points higher on the math portion of the test.

David Sadker, a professor at American University's school of education, casts caution on Gams' explanations for the score gap.

"The American public has a blind spot to gender differences in testing -- the fact is that males continue to outdo girls on standardized testing," he said.

Seppy Basili, vice president of pre-college programs at Kaplan, Inc., offered a different explanation for the gender gap. He said that girls' scores improve more than boys' scores after taking SAT preparation classes -- suggesting that prep courses help minimize the gender gap.

"In our own courses, we see girls' scores go up by an average of 32 points, which is only 10 points less than this year's gap in gender scores," Basili said.

Penn has shown no indication of changing its standards as a result of the increased difference between male and female scores.

"We've seen a gender gap for decades -- it really has no bearing on Penn's admissions process," Dean of Admissions Lee Stetson said. "Women perform exceptionally well in the classroom, which makes up for any deficit in SAT scores."

The validity and fairness of the SAT has been the subject of heated controversy since February, when Richard Atkinson, president of the University of California, proposed that his university system stop requiring SAT scores for admissions.

Atkinson questioned the value of the SAT as an ability predictor, and suggested the development of a test that would accurately represent students' performances in high school.

Many sense that the end of standardized testing is near.

"The movement now is away from the SAT -- why settle on one number when we can look at a rich profile?" Sadker asked. "The best test is to let students into universities and then see if they do well."

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