Study: High-Stakes Tests Disadvantage Women

By Scott Jaschik. A new study in the journal PLOS ONE finds that female students may be disadvantaged by high-stakes tests. The study looked at performance in an introductory biology course and found that women performed worse on average than did men in tests in the course. But the study also found that the women outperformed men in laboratory work and written assignments, suggesting that the tests may not be capturing the knowledge of women as well as other forms of assessment. More...