[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-530154-105":59,"doc-detail-530154-en":134},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":127,"head_meta":129,"extra_data":131,"updated_unix":133},105,"en","gender-fairness-using-the-act","Gender Fairness Using the ACT","","Gender bias concerns around standardized college entrance tests are examined through the ACT. Although males are often thought to score higher, ACT results show only small overall gaps. Using eight years of ACT data from Colorado and Illinois, the analysis compares pre-2002 self-selected test takers with post-2002 statewide administrations where all students took the exam. The male–female score gap disappears after statewide testing and a slight advantage for females emerges, aligned with differences in high school GPA.",{"@graph":69,"@context":126},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":20,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/exam/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/gender-fairness-using-the-act/530154/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/gender-fairness-using-the-act/530154.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"moss~","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-10","2026-10-09",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":34},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118,122],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why has ACT gender fairness been questioned?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Critics argue standardized tests may favor males because males typically outperform females. The document assesses whether the ACT actually shows meaningful bias.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What change occurred in Colorado and Illinois in 2002?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Colorado and Illinois adopted the ACT as a mandated statewide assessment, so all students took the test instead of only the college-bound, self-selected group.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What happened to male–female score differences after statewide testing?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The score gaps disappeared when the ACT was administered to all students statewide, with slight differences afterward that favored females (0.2 in Colorado and 0.1 in Illinois).",{"name":123,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":124},"How does self-selection relate to the observed gender gap?",{"text":125,"@type":113},"The document states that removing self-selection in taking the test is the primary reason the gender score difference disappears, since students with lower scores were less likely to take the test voluntarily and were more often male than female.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":128,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":130,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":132,"site_id":62},530154,1791600091,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":135},{"doc_id":132,"user_id":136,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":137,"doc_module":4,"category_id":19,"category_name":20,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":138,"file_id":139,"file_url":140,"file_type":141,"file_size":142,"view_count":34,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":19,"language":143,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":144,"faqs":145,"seo_title":146,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":147,"read_time":52,"preview_page_count":4},962090895452,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","COLLEGE READINESS  \nISSUES IN COLLEGE READINESS  \nGender Fairness Using the ACT  \nA criticism made against standardized tests is that they may be biased against females because males typically outscore females. On the ACT, males perform only slightly better than females. Among the high school graduating class of 2004, for example, males outscored females by 0.1 point on the ACT Composite score, and this difference has been roughly consistent across the last 8 years, averaging 0.2 per year (Figure 1) .  \nFigure 1: ACT Assessment Composite Score for Males and Females, 1999-2004  \nScore  \n21.3  \n21.2  \n21.1  \n21.0  \n20.9  \n20.8  \n20.7  \n20.6  \n20.5  \n20.4  \n\n| |\n| --- |\n|  |\n\n1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004  \nYear  \n Males  Females  \nMost high schools have about the same number of males and females; highschool course-taking patterns for the two sexes are roughly similar; and, most important, females earn higher grades on average in high school than do males. So why do males outperform females on standardized college entrance examinations such as the ACT?  \nThe population of students who take the ACT is self-selected—that is, the ACT has traditionally been taken primarily by those planning to attend college. For the past decade, 56 percent of ACT test takers have been female, a figure identical to the percentage of females attending college during the same period. One theory is that if all students, not just the college bound, were to take the ACT, there would be no score difference between males and females.  \nTo test this theory, we decided to study eight years’ worth of data from the states of Colorado and Illinois, both of which recently moved from traditional selfselected administrations ofthe ACT to a system in which all students take the test.  \nIn 2002, Colorado and Illinois adopted the ACT as part of mandated statewide assessment of all high school students in those states. This means that, rather than representing traditional, self-selected samples ofACT takers, the ACTtested populations of these states now comprise all students. To examine the question of gender fairness on the ACT we compared score differences between  \n© 2005 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. IC 050805160  \nself-selected males and females prior to 2002 with the score differences of all students since 2002.  \nFigure 2 reports the differences in the average ACT Composite score for males and females in Colorado and Illinois for the last 8 years.  \nComposite Score Difference  \n1  \n0.5  \n0  \n-0.5  \nFigure 2: Yearly Differences in ACT Composite Scores (Male-Female) Colorado and Illinois (1997–2004)  \n\n| 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>0.3 0.3  0.2 0.2 0.2 | Statewide Use of the ACT\u003Cbr>0 0 -0.1\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>-0.1 \u003Cbr>-0.2 -0.2 |\n| --- | --- |\n\n1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004  \nYear  \n Colorado  Illinois  \nThe differences in scores are fairly constant across the first 5 years—then both show a large change in 2002, the year when statewide testing of all students, not just the college bound, was instituted. The score gaps between males and females in these states disappeared when the ACT was administered to all students statewide. In fact, there is now a slight difference in favor of females of 0.2 point in Colorado and 0.1 point in Illinois, differences that are consistent with the fact that females earn higher grade point averages than males (see Tables 1 and 2) .  \nTable 1: Characteristics of 2004 Colorado High School Graduating Class by  \nGender  \n\n|  | Female | Male |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| % Test Takers | 50 | 49 |\n| Avg. HS GPA | 3.15 | 2.91 |\n| % Core or More: English Mathematics Social Science Natural Science | 77\u003Cbr>71\u003Cbr>75\u003Cbr>63 | 73\u003Cbr>67\u003Cbr>71\u003Cbr>61 |\n| % Less Than Core: English Mathematics Social Science Natural Science | 11\u003Cbr>17\u003Cbr>12\u003Cbr>24 | 14\u003Cbr>18\u003Cbr>15\u003Cbr>24 |\n\nNote: Percentages do not sum to 100 due to rounding and non-respondents.  \nTable 2 : Characteristics of 2004 Illinois High School Graduating Class by  \nGender  \n\n|  |","cbCairDVjGhTHlGE","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCairDVjGhTHlGE","pdf",260554,"English","# College Readiness Issues in College Readiness\n## Gender Fairness Using the ACT\n## Self-Selected vs. Statewide ACT Testing\n## Colorado and Illinois Results (1997–2004)\n## Score Differences and GPA Characteristics","[{\"question\":\"Why has ACT gender fairness been questioned?\",\"answer\":\"Critics argue standardized tests may favor males because males typically outperform females. The document assesses whether the ACT actually shows meaningful bias.\"},{\"question\":\"What change occurred in Colorado and Illinois in 2002?\",\"answer\":\"Colorado and Illinois adopted the ACT as a mandated statewide assessment, so all students took the test instead of only the college-bound, self-selected group.\"},{\"question\":\"What happened to male–female score differences after statewide testing?\",\"answer\":\"The score gaps disappeared when the ACT was administered to all students statewide, with slight differences afterward that favored females (0.2 in Colorado and 0.1 in Illinois).\"},{\"question\":\"How does self-selection relate to the observed gender gap?\",\"answer\":\"The document states that removing self-selection in taking the test is the primary reason the gender score difference disappears, since students with lower scores were less likely to take the test voluntarily and were more often male than female.\"}]","Gender Fairness Using the ACT | PDF",1791522679]