From Multiple Choice to Multiple Choices

Are standardized tests an equitable way to measure the achievement of America's children? A fresh, four-year study by the Educational Testing Service of the gender gap on standardized tests concludes that differences in performance between boys and girls are real, but not large, and cut both ways. ("ETS Disputes Charges of Gender Bias," May 14, 1997.) Still, critics of standardized testing, like the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, blast the ETS study as "a smoke screen designed to divert attention from the ongoing problems with the exams they publish."