9Sex Differences in Item Responses on the Graduate Record Examination

This study explores the scope and nature of sex differences in the December 1974 aptitude tests of the Graduate Record Examination by identifying individual test items that differ from the other items in terms of the magnitude of the difference in item difficulty for the sexes. The method is that’ used in earlier studies by Angoff and Stern (1971) and by Strassberg-Rosenberg and Donlon (1975). In general, limited evidence of sex differences was es-tablished. Sex differences are frequently encountered in testing. For example, Keating and Stanley (1972) found relatively few females gifted in mathematics and science. In earlier years these differences were so common, and so widely an-ticipated and accepted, that Coffman (1961) ob-served that comparable scores by samples of men and women were likely to be interpreted as evidence of distorted sampling. In such a climate, analyses of the factors that were associated with differentials in sex perfor-mance were seldom undertaken. In recent years, however, there has been a strong interest in the question of sex differences, particularly as they relate to differentiation in social roles and to the principle of equal rights and privileges. A num-ber of aspects of education have been examined, with a natural focus on testing. Tittle, Mc