Scores by Sex

In 1992, more females than males took the SAT; however, the mean score for males was 43 points higher than that for females. (See figure 1-7.) See also appendix table 1-18. In addition, females are underrepresented among the highest scorers. While 24 percent of males scored at or above 600 on the math SAT, only 13 percent of women scored that high. At first glance, this gap seems inconsistent with the smaller gaps found in the by-sex comparisons. In part, this difference may stem from the very nature of the tests themselves: NAEP identifies trends in academic progress, while the SAT predicts college performance. More importantly, NAEP does not ask questions requiring advanced mathematics skills and therefore does not differentiate among the highest achieving students. The SAT requires more advanced skills, but is still somewhat limited in its ability to disaggregate the highest scorers.

Although strong gains were evident in the NAEP mathematics scores and the sex gap seems to be closing, the significant gap among the highest scorers suggests that much more needs to be done if the full potential of half of the population is to be tapped.

ContentsSearchContinue