Following up on the recent discussion about the gender differences on the SAT math test, the two tables above provide some additional food for thought based on gender differences on the ACT test.
The top table above shows the national test results by gender for the four ACT subject areas (English, reading, math and science reasoning) and the overall composite scores in 5-year intervals from 1995 to 2015 based on data from the Department of Education. Here are some details:
1. An the national level, high school girls have scored consistently higher on the English test over the last 20 years by 0.80 points on average and on the reading test by 0.40 points.
2. High school boys have scored consistently higher on the math test by an average of 1.1 points and on the science test by 0.9 points.