Does Kentucky's school assessment discriminate against males?

It is pretty much taken as fact that boys outscore girls on math. That is true with the new National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math tests, as well. For example, the two bars on the far left of the figure below show that while Kentucky’s fourth grade females had a 34 percent NAEP math proficiency rate, our state’s fourth grade males did notably better with a 39 percent proficiency rate.

But, now take a look at the second group of bars on the right. The first two bars show that on the KCCT math test, female fourth graders were 72 percent proficient while their male counterparts were only 71 percent proficient.


Things are even more dramatic for the eighth grade results. In the NAEP, the boys had a five point advantage, just like boys did in the fourth grade NAEP. But, on the KCCT the girls outshined the boys by four points.

What’s going on with Kentucky’s Tests?




This table adds a bit more information and was used to generate the graph above.


Notice in the far right column that if the NAEP is accurate, then our KCCT proficiency ratings for girls are dramatically more inflated than they are for boys.

As our testing “gurus” work through the revisions to Kentucky’s testing program that will replace the KCCT, they need to keep this sort of bias information in mind. We don’t want a test that gives an unfair advantage to any student group.

Data Sources Used:

NAEP 2009 Math Report Card

Statewide 2009 Interim Performance Report