From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Mon Jul 03 2000 - 22:23:53 MDT
> How can we explain that girls get better grades (administered
> subjectively by teachers), while boys get better scores on
> standardized tests (administered dispassionately by automated
> systems)?
This is the case even when grades /aren't/ subjective. Grades
and tests simply measure different things. Tests generally
measure individual acquired abstract knowledge at a point in time.
Grades generally measure things like accomplishment and
participation over a period of time. A person who may not be
very good at memorizing things for quick recall can nonetheless
accomplish a lot with good organizational and social skills.
I aced every test I ever took, including, for example, in a
required high school civics course I failed, and had to do extra
credit work to be allowed to graduate. I had to highest SAT
scores in my class, but dropped out of junior college. My sister
on the other hand was organized and hard-working, formed good
support groups, and had perfect grades; her SATs were good, but
not great, and she did well in college too. She earns more than
I do, and for good reason: she had the discipline to work hard
for a long time, establish trust and relationships, and rise up
the ranks of her profession and be rewarded for it. I, on the
other hand, am a hired gun who's had 8 jobs over 20 years. I do
very well, but with a defferent set of tools.
There are different routes to success, and it should not be
surprizing that different attempts to measure qualities of
diverse people will come up with different answers for them.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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