National Merit Scholarships
The Controversy
Although, on the average, boys and girls do about equally well on the PSAT math test, there are
slightly more boys in the top 1%. (There are also slightly more boys than girls in the bottom 1%,
but they don't get any awards.) Since National Merit Scholarships are awarded based in
part on these scores, more boys than girls win the awards.
In an effort to "correct" this imbalance, the (???) altered their formula
for computing scores based on the PSAT. Instead of taking the simple average of the math and verbal
scores,
(M + V)/2,
as they had done in the past, they began using a weighted average that gave the verbal score twice
the weight of the math score:
(M + 2V)/3
This had the effect of lifting more girls into the top 1%, since girls tend to do better than boys on
the verbal test.
But this new formula turned out to have little effect. Although girls tend overall to do better than
boys on the verbal test,
more of the top scorers are boys than girls, just as on the math test.
So the most recent alteration has been to add a written component to the test,
since girls tend to be better writers than boys. The formula used now is
(M + 2V + W)/4
Is this fair?
Internet Resources
- Where the Boys Are,
by Christina Hoff Sommers, in Education Week, Jun 12, 1996
- Where the Girls Are,
by David Sadker, in Education Week, Sep 4, 1996
- Test-Makers
to Revise Nat. Merit Exam to Address Gender Bias, an article by FairTest,
Fall 1996
- Traumatic Tests: Gender Bias
and the SATs, by Cathy Dean (personal web page), May 10, 1997
- ETS Disputes Charge of
Gender Bias, Educational Week, May 14, 1997
- FairTest Press Release,
Jan 14, 1998
- The ETS Gender Study,
published by the Educational Testing Service