Re: Justification for the SAT

[Stephen McGinnis <Nanodev@AOL.COM>]

In a message dated 9/1/01 4:28:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
kber@EARTHLINK.NET writes:

> Methinks you need to read a bit more carefully.  Sadker says in the piece
> from
>  which you quote that the way grades are awarded to girls encourages them
to
> be
>  more conformist, that the process is one that fails girls, not that grades
> are
>  biased against them.  In this he is consistent with the rest of his work,
> such
>  as that shown in the book he co-wrote with his wife, Failing at Fairness.
> It is
>  also worth noting that he is not saying that girls don't deserve higher
> grades,
>  you do, after all include the portion about the girls doing better on
> spelling
>  bees than boys.

Lets boil this down.  We are faced with two facts that I think everyone will
agree on.  First, male students score higher on standardized tests.  Female
students receive higher teacher-assigned grades in high school and college.
Since standardized tests are meant to predict college grades, it would appear
that these two facts are mutually exclusive.  So which one do we believe?

Since most on this board believe SAT scores are biased, lets take them off
the table for a minute.  We are left with the fact that female students have
higher grades.  There appear to be two ways to interpret this result.  First,
this accurately reflects a difference in achievement.  Second, there is no
difference in achievement, this result is due to bias in the assignment of
grades.

If it is the first case, schools should work to eliminate the gender
difference in achievement.  According to your analysis, Sadker appears to
partially support this interpretation that there is a real gender difference
in achievement (i.e. "he is not saying that girls don't deserve higher
grades.")  However, he does not follow through on this instead using the
excuse that male students have higher SAT scores as a reason not to address
the grade gender-gap.  We have now come full circle, we are back to the SAT
being used as an accurate measure of student performance.

Lets look at the second case and assume that there is no gender gap in
achievement, or that male achievement is actually higher than female
achievement, and the grade gender-gap is the result of inherent bias.  In
this case we need to address the inherent bias in grades.  This also implies
that the exclusive use of grades as a measure of academic achievement puts
male students at a disadvantage.

Since no one is willing to state which scenario is correct, the logical
solution appears to be to hedge our bets and use both grades and standardized
tests in evaluating students.  In fact, Dr. Sadker appeared to agree with
this approach when I discussed this with him back on July 29th.  I will not
include the text of this message since this was a private email.  However, I
will disclose it with his permission.


Sincerely,

Steve McGinnis

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