The answer is no. A careful look at the pool of students who take the SAT and similar tests shows that the girls' lower scores have little or nothing to do with bias or unfairness. Indeed, the scores do not even signify lower achievement by girls. Instead of wrongly using SAT scores as evidence of bias against girls, scholars should be concerned about the boys who never show up for the tests they need if they are to move on to higher education. Another factor skews test results so that they appear to favor boys.
Boys also dominate dropout lists, failure lists, and learning-disability lists.
Students in these groups rarely take college-admissions tests. On the other hand, the exceptional boys who take school seriously show up in disproportionately high numbers for standardized tests. Suppose we were to turn our attention away from the highly motivated, self-selected two fifths of high school students who take the SAT and consider instead a truly representative sample of American schoolchildren. Well, we have the answer. The National Assessment of Educational Progress , started in 1969 and mandated by Congress, offers the best and most comprehensive measure of achievement among students at all levels of ability.