
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 26, 1993                   TAG: 9305260146
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SCHOLARSHIP TEST BIAS HURTS GIRLS, GROUP SAYS

Three out of five semifinalists for the National Merit Scholarships this year were boys, an advocacy group reported Tuesday, even though well over half of the high school students taking the qualifying test were girls.

The group, the National Center for Fair and Open Testing in Cambridge, Mass., said it has compiled lists of semifinalists for seven years and found little change in the ratio of boys to girls among semifinalists, despite a growing chorus of complaints that standardized tests are biased against girls.

Though no one has analyzed the list of scholarship winners, the National Merit Corp., the private group that organizes the scholarships, said the gender breakdown is usually similar to that of the semifinalists.

This year's analysis found that of the 15,850 semifinalists, 61 percent are boys and 35 percent are girls. (The sex of the remaining 4 percent cannot be determined from their names.)

The National Merit semifinalists are chosen from their scores on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test, which critics have long accused of bias against girls.

Although girls get higher grades on average than boys in both high school and college, they score 50 to 60 points lower on the PSAT.

"The PSAT is not an appropriate indicator of how a student has done in high school or how a student will do in college," said Cinthia Schuman, executive director of the advocacy group. "It should not be part of the selection process for the National Merit Scholarships."

"We are not convinced that the test is biased," said Elaine Detweiler, of the National Merit Corp. "It could be showing a disparity in academic preparation. If girls are getting better grades in home economics or things like that, they're not better prepared."

About 15,000 students nationwide are chosen as semifinalists. Those students submit their SAT scores, high school records, extracurricular records, an essay and recommendations, Detweiler said. Ninety percent are chosen as finalists. About 6,500 get scholarships.

by CNB