The Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has urged the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and the College Board to change the Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test (PSAT) so that girls' scores would improve. PSAT results are used to determine the finalists for the National Merit Scholarships, which are drawn from the first percentile of high scorers. Since only 44 percent of the scholarships were awarded to girls, the OCR argued that adding a writing section to accompany the math and verbal sections would give girls a chance to even up the scores in an area in which they are known to do better than boys.

The ETS and College Board are complying with OCR's wishes, despite an ETS study suggesting that only a random drawing would assure the desired results. The "ETS Gender Study" documented that while the average performance of girls and boys is quite similar, there is greater variance in the scores of boys. There are 5 boys for every 4 girls in the top 10 percent of scorers, and the effect becomes more pronounced at the top and bottom of the scale. With more extreme high and low scores among boys, drawing from the top 1 percent of all scores would always select a greater number of high-scoring boys.

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