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Gender Differences in College Mathematics Grades and SAT‐M Scores: A Reanalysis of Wainer and Steinberg
Author(s) -
Bridgeman Brent,
Lewis Charles
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of educational measurement
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.917
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1745-3984
pISSN - 0022-0655
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-3984.1996.tb00492.x
Subject(s) - precalculus , calculus (dental) , liberal arts education , mathematics education , mathematics , psychology , medicine , algebra over a field , higher education , pure mathematics , orthodontics , political science , law
Wainer and Steinberg (1992) showed that within broad categories of first‐year college mathematics courses (e.g., calculus) men had substantially higher average scores on the mathematics section of the SAT (SAT‐M) than women who earned the same letter grade. However, three aspects of their analyses may lead to unwarranted conclusions. First, they focused primarily on differences in SAT‐M scores given course grades when the more important question for admissions officers is the difference in course grades given scores on the predictor. Second, they failed to account for differences among calculus courses (e.g., calculus for engineers versus calculus for liberal arts students). Most importantly, Wainer and Steinberg focused on the use of SAT‐M as a single predictor. A reanalysis presented here indicated that a more appropriate composite indicator made up of both SAT‐M and high school grade point average demonstrated minuscule gender differences for both calculus and precalculus courses.