Mark, please read the study I linked above. It's open access and draws similar conclusions to the one that is behind the pay wall.
To identify college and high school students who
possess profound intrinsic aptitude for mathematics,
we compiled complete data sets from the past
ten to twenty years of the top-scoring participants
in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition
[40], International Mathematical Olympiad
(IMO) [22], and USA Mathematical Olympiad
(USAMO) [39]. These competitions consist of
extremely difficult problems whose solutions require
the writing of rigorous proofs. The top scorers
on these examinations have truly exceptional
skills in mathematical problem solving, that is, at
the one-in-a-million level. Since the IMO is taken
by the very top mathematics students from approximately
ninety-five countries throughout the
world, it provides information regarding cultural
differences among countries as well.
I am not talking about "tests aimed at the middle."
I suggest reading the actual research before dismissing something as "junk science."
Perhaps you are confused because I actually cited several different articles here. The data showing that girls' and boys' average scores do not differ on easy NCLB tests is from a different study; however, that study also looked at more difficult tests, as discussed here:
"Some studies have focused specifically on the mathematically talented. The best known example is the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) or Study of Exceptional Talent (SET), an ongoing study originally begun at The Johns Hopkins University in the 1970s (21). These researchers administer the SAT to children <13 years of age who have been identified as mathematically advanced. Their sample is voluntary, and the sampling frame is not well defined. It has also changed over time with respect to sample size and ethnicity, including large numbers of children of immigrants from Eastern Europe and Asia in recent years. In 1980�1982, they reported a very lopsided M:F ratio of 13:1 among students scoring ≥700 on the quantitative section of the examination (21). However, here too, the gender gap has dramatically narrowed with time. The M:F ratio was down to 2.8:1 by 2005 (22, 23). Thus, females now represent at least 1/4 of the mathematically precocious youth being identified in this U.S. talent search. This fairly rapid and dramatic change occurred coincident with enactment of Title IX, the second wave of the women's movement, and greatly increased immigration of Eastern Europeans and Asians to the U.S., points further discussed below. "
