EXAMPLE 7 The SAT again

“SAT bias will illegally cheat thousands of young women out of college admissions and scholarship aid they have earned by superior classroom performance.” That’s what the organization FairTest said when the 1999 SAT scores were released. The gender gap was larger on the math part of the test, where women averaged 495 and men averaged 531. Fifteen years later, in 2014, the gap remained. Among high school seniors, women averaged 499 and men 530 on the math part of the test. The federal Office of Civil Rights says that tests on which women and minorities score lower are discriminatory.

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The College Board, which administers the SAT, replies that there are many reasons some groups have lower average scores than others. For example, more women than men from families with low incomes and little education sign up for the SAT. Students whose parents have low incomes and little education have, on the average, fewer advantages at home and in school than richer students. They have lower SAT scores because their backgrounds have not prepared them as well for college. The mere fact of lower scores doesn’t imply that the test is not valid.