Gender bias in standardized tests: evidence from a centralized college admissions system
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Gender bias in standardized tests: evidence from a centralized college admissions system Perihan O. Saygin1 Received: 20 January 2018 / Accepted: 5 March 2019 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract This paper aims to analyze the gender gap in educational outcomes from different student assessment methods. I exploit a college application setting in which the centralized admission system allocates students based on a composite score, which is a weighted average of high school grade point average and a standardized test score. Using administrative data, I find that females significantly outperform males in high school grade point average in every subject, and not only on average but also at all quantiles. Yet the situation is reversed when it comes to standardized test scores: males outperform females in all subjects and almost all quantiles, with the largest magnitude of the difference in quantitative subjects and highest quantiles. Based on these findings, I argue that the gender gap is affected by the student assessment method used in a centralized system of college admissions. Keywords Gender gap · Standardized test · College admissions · Centralized admissions JEL Classification I21 · I24 · I25
Some of the results presented in this paper are from my PhD dissertation. An earlier version of this paper was a working paper titled “Do Girls Really Outperform Boys in Educational Outcomes?”. I am indebted to David Card and Francesca Lotti for their advice and encouragement, and to the Student Selection and Placement Center (OSYM in Turkish) in Turkey for sharing data. I would also like to thank Scott Kostyshak, Andrea Weber, Richard Romano, Nic Spaull, and anonymous referees for their insightful comments.
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Perihan O. Saygin [email protected] Department of Economics, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
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P. O. Saygin
1 Introduction Standardized tests are commonly used in college applications around the world, millions of senior high school students annually take a standardized test, as these are the most widely used college entrance exams. Ideally, the results of the standardized tests are indicative of a student’s college performance. Yet the debate is twofold: advocates of standardized testing argue that the tests offer fair placement by treating everyone equally; their critics argue that such tests are a poor measure of ability, and that high school grades are found to be better predictors of college performance (Easton et al. 2017). In countries with centralized college application systems,1 standardized tests remain the sole determinant of student admissions. In some cases, a student’s high school grade point average is also considered and may be combined with a standardized test score to produce a composite score used for admission decisions; in some decentralized systems, other required application materials are also considered. Some studies concerning the gender bias have criticized the use of standardized tests to select and/or assign students to schools or colleges
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