Standardized test

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Young adults in Poland sit for theirMatura exams. The Matura is standardized so that universities can easily
compare results from students across the entire country.

A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent, or

"standard", manner. Standardized tests are designed in such a way that the
questions, conditions for administering, scoring procedures, and interpretations
are consistent[1] and are administered and scored in a predetermined, standard
manner.[2]
Any test in which the same test is given in the same manner to all test takers, is a
standardized test. Standardized tests do not need to behigh-stakes tests, timelimited tests, or multiple-choice tests. The opposite of standardized testing is nonstandardized testing, in which either significantly different tests are given to
different test takers, or the same test is assigned under significantly different
conditions (e.g., one group is permitted far less time to complete the test than the
next group) or evaluated differently (e.g., the same answer is counted right for
one student, but wrong for another student). The scoring of essays is done quickly
and by non-educators. Scoring essays by people that are not taking their time and
are given bonuses is a pitfall in scoring.[3]
Standardized tests are perceived as being more fair than non-standardized tests,
because everyone gets the same test and the same grading system. This is fairer
and more objective than a system in which some students get an easier test and
others get a more difficult test. The consistency also permits more reliable
comparison of outcomes across all test takers, because everyone is taking the
same test.[4]

Contents
[hide]

1History
1.1China
1.2UK
1.3United States
1.4Australia
2Design and scoring
2.1Scoring issues
2.2Score
3Standards
3.1Evaluation standards
3.2Testing standards
4Importance of testing
4.1Reflection of testing
5Public policy
6Advantages
7Disadvantages and criticism
8Scoring information loss
9Educational decisions
10See also
10.1Major topics
10.2Other topics
11References
12Further reading
13External links

History[edit]
China[edit]
Main article: Imperial examination
The imperial examinations were a civil examination service in china to select
candidates for the state bureaucracy.
The earliest evidence of standardized testing was in China, during the Tang
Dynasty,[5] where the imperial examinations covered the Six Arts which included
music, archery and horsemanship, arithmetic, writing, and knowledge of the
rituals and ceremonies of both public and private parts. Later, sections on military
strategies, civil law, revenue and taxation, agriculture and geography were added
to the testing. In this form, the examinations were institutionalized for more than
a millennium. Today, standardized testing remains widely used, most famously in
the Gaokao system.

UK[edit]
Standardized testing was introduced into Europe in the early 19th century,
modeled on the Chinese mandarin examinations,[6] through the advocacy of
British colonial administrators, the most "persistent" of which was Britain's consul
in Guangzhou, China, Thomas Taylor Meadows.[6] Meadows warned of the collapse
of the British Empire if standardized testing was not implemented throughout the
empire immediately.[6]
Prior to their adoption, standardized testing was not traditionally a part of Western
pedagogy; based on the skeptical and open-ended tradition of debate inherited
from Ancient Greece, Western academia favored non-standardized assessments
using essays written by students. It is because of this, that the first European
implementation of standardized testing did not occur in Europe proper, but
in British India.[7] Inspired by the Chinese use of standardized testing, in the early
19th century, British "company managers hired and promoted employees based
on competitive examinations in order to prevent corruption and favoritism."[7] This
practice of standardized testing was later adopted in the late 19th century by the
British mainland. The parliamentary debates that ensued made many references
to the "Chinese mandarin system."[6]
It was from Britain that standardized testing spread, not only throughout
the British Commonwealth, but to Europe and then America.[6] Its spread was
fueled by the Industrial Revolution. Given the large number of school students
during and after the Industrial Revolution, when compulsory education laws
increased student populations, open-ended assessment of all students decreased.
Moreover, the lack of a substantial source of measurement error, as graders might
show favoritism or might disagree with each other about the relative merits of
different answers.

More recently, standardized testing has been shaped in part, by the ease and low
cost of grading of multiple-choice tests by computer. Though the process is more
difficult than grading multiple-choice tests electronically, essays can also be
graded by computer. In other instances, essays and other open-ended responses
are graded according to a pre-determined assessment rubric by trained graders.
For example, at Pearson, all essay graders have four-year university degrees, and
a majority are current or former classroom teachers.[8]

United States[edit]
Further information: List of standardized tests in the United States
Standardized testing has been a part of American education since the 1800s. With
its origins in World War I and the Army Alpha and Beta tests developed by Robert
Yerkes and colleagues.[9] Before then, immigration in the mid-19th century
contributed to the growth of standardized tests in the United States.
[10] Standardized tests were used in immigration when people first came over to
test social roles and find social power and status.[11]
In 1959, Everett Lindquist offered the ACT (American College Testing) for the first
time.[12] The ACT currently includes 4 main sections with multiple choice questions
to test English, mathematics, reading, and science, plus an optional writing
section.[13]
Large population state testing began in the 1970s, and in the 1980s America
began to assess nationally.[14] The need for the federal government to make
meaningful comparisons across a highly de-centralized (locally controlled) public
education system has also contributed to the debate about standardized testing,
including the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 that required
standardized testing in public schools. U.S. Public Law 107-110, known as the No
Child Left Behind Act of 2001, further ties public school funding to standardized
testing. The goal of No Child Left Behind was to improve the education system in
the United States by holding school and teachers accountable and attempting to
close the educational gap between minority and non-minority children in public
schools. Students' results on standardized tests were used to allocate funds and
other resources such as teachers and administrators to schools. This policy does
not provide a federal standard for schools, but allows each state to set their own
standards.[15] The NCLB act required that all 50 states participate and annually
test student's proficiency for each grade level. After NCLB was enacted the United
States was 18th in the world for math. Seven years later the United States has
slipped to 31st in the world and all other areas of testing have declined.
Standardized testing is a very common way of determining a student's past
academic achievement and future potential. However, high-stakes tests (whether
standardized or non-standardized) can cause anxiety. When teachers or schools
are rewarded for better performance on tests, then those rewards encourage
teachers to "teach to the test" instead of providing a rich and broad curriculum.
[16] As a result, standardized testing has become controversial in the United
States.[17]

Australia[edit]
The Australian National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)
or known as standardized testing was commenced in 2008 by the Australian
Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, an independent authority
"responsible for the development of a national curriculum, a national assessment
program and a national data collection and reporting program that supports 21st
century learning for all Australian students".[18]
The testing includes all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in Australian schools to be
assessed using national tests. The subjects covered in these testings include
Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation) and
Numeracy.
The program presents students level reports designed to enable parents to see
their child's progress over the course of their schooling life, and help teachers to
improve individual learning opportunities for their students. Students and school
level data are also provided to the appropriate school system on the
understanding that they can be used to target specific supports and resources to
schools that need them most. Teachers and schools use this information, in
conjunction with other information, to determine how well their students are
performing and to identify any areas of need requiring assistance.[19]
The concept of testing student achievement is not new, although the current
Australian approach may be said to have its origins in current educational policy
structures in both the USA and the UK. There are several key differences between
the Australian NAPLAN/ and the UK and USA strategies. Schools that are found to
be under performing in the Australian context will be offered support/ financial
assistance under the current Federal Government policy. In contrast with the
USA No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 where it brought threat of school closures. In
the USA students get held back if they have not performed to their best ability,
where in Australia the results have no impact on grade promotion.

Design and scoring[edit]

Some standardized testing uses multiple-choice tests, which are relatively inexpensive to score, but any
form of assessment can be used.

Standardized testing can be composed of multiple-choice questions, true-false

questions, essay questions, authentic assessments, or nearly any other form of
assessment. Multiple-choice and true-false items are often chosen because they
can be given and scored inexpensively and quickly by scoring special answer
sheets by computer or via computer-adaptive testing. Some standardized tests
have short-answer or essay writing components that are assigned a score by
independent evaluators who use rubrics (rules or guidelines) and benchmark
papers (examples of papers for each possible score) to determine the grade to be
given to a response. Not all standardized tests involve answering questions; an
authentic assessment for athletic skills could take the form of running for a set
amount of time ordribbling a ball for a certain distance.
Most assessments, however, are not scored by people; people are used to score
items that are not able to be scored easily by computer (such as essays). For
example, the Graduate Record Exam is a computer-adaptive assessment that
requires no scoring by people except for the writing portion.[20]
The term "normative assessment" refers to the process of comparing one testtaker to his or her peers. A norm-referenced test (NRT) is a type of
test, assessment, or evaluation which yields an estimate of the position of the
tested individual in a predefined population. The estimate is derived from the
analysis of test scores and other relevant data from a sample drawn from the
population. This type of test identifies whether the test taker performed better or
worse than other students taking this test. A criterion-referenced test (CRT) is a

style of test which uses test scores to show whether or not test takers performed
well on a given task, not how well they performed compared to other test takers.
Most tests and quizzes that are written by school teachers can be considered
criterion-referenced tests. In this case, the objective is simply to see whether the
student has learned the material.

Scoring issues[edit]
Human scoring is relatively expensive and often variable, which is why computer
scoring is preferred when feasible. For example, some critics say that poorly paid
employees will score tests badly.[21] Agreement between scorers can vary
between 60 and 85 percent, depending on the test and the scoring session.
Sometimes states pay to have two or more scorers read each paper; if their
scores do not agree, then the paper is passed to additional scorers.[21]
Open-ended components of tests are often only a small proportion of the test.
Most commonly, a major academic test includes both human-scored and
computer-scored sections.
Standardized tests can't measure initiative, creativity, imagination,conceptual
thinking, curiosity,good will, ethical reflection, or a host of other valuable
dispositions and attributes. What they can measure and count are isolated skills,
specific facts and functions, the least interesting and least significant aspects of
learning[22]

Score[edit]
Sample scoring for the history question: What caused World War II?
Student answers
Standardized grading
Non-standardized grading

Student #1:
WWII was caused by Hitler and
Germany invading Poland.

Grading rubric: Answers

must be marked correct if
they mention at least one
of the following:
Germany's invasion of
Poland, Japan's invasion of
China, or economic issues.

No grading standards. Each teacher

grades however he or she wants to,
considering whatever factors the
teacher chooses, such as the answer,
the amount of effort, the student's
academic background, language
ability, or attitude.

Teacher #1:
This answer mentions one
of the required items, so it
is correct.
Teacher #2:
This answer is correct.

Teacher #1:
I feel like this answer is good
enough, so I'll mark it correct.
Teacher #2:
This answer is correct, but this good
student should be able to do better
than that, so I'll only give partial
credit.

Student #2:
WWII was caused by multiple
factors, including the Great
Depression and the general
economic situation, the rise of
national socialism, fascism, and
imperialist expansionism, and
unresolved resentments related to
WWI. The war in Europe began
with the German invasion of
Poland.

Student #3:
WWII was caused by the
assassination of Archduke
Ferdinand.

Teacher #1:
This answer mentions one
of the required items, so it
is correct.
Teacher #2:
This answer is correct.

Teacher #1:
I feel like this answer is correct and
complete, so I'll give full credit.
Teacher #2:
This answer is correct, so I'll give
full points.

Teacher #1:
This answer does not
mention any of the
required items. No points.
Teacher #2:
This answer is wrong. No
credit.

Teacher #1:
This answer is wrong. No points.
Teacher #2:
This answer is wrong, but this
student tried hard and the sentence
is grammatically correct, so I'll give
one point for effort.

There are two types of standardized test scoreinterpretations: a normreferenced score interpretation or a criterion-referenced score interpretation.
Norm-referenced score interpretationscompare test-takers to a sample of
peers. The goal is to rank students as being better or worse than other students.
Norm-referenced test score interpretations are associated with traditional
education. Students who perform better than others pass the test, and students
who perform worse than others fail the test.
Criterion-referenced score interpretationscompare test-takers to a criterion
(a formal definition of content), regardless of the scores of other examinees.
These may also be described as standards-based assessments, as they are
aligned with the standards-based education reform movement.[23] Criterionreferenced score interpretations are concerned solely with whether or not this
particular student's answer is correct and complete. Under criterion-referenced
systems, it is possible for all students to pass the test, or for all students to fail
the test.
Either of these systems can be used in standardized testing. What is important to
standardized testing is whether all students are asked equivalent questions, under
equivalent circumstances, and graded equally. In a standardized test, if a given
answer is correct for one student, it is correct for all students. Graders do not
accept an answer as good enough for one student but reject the same answer as
inadequate for another student.

Standards[edit]
The considerations of validity and reliability typically are viewed as essential
elements for determining the quality of any standardized test. However,
professional and practitioner associations frequently have placed these concerns
within broader contexts when developing standards and making overall
judgments about the quality of any standardized test as a whole within a given
context.

Evaluation standards[edit]
In the field of evaluation, and in particular educational evaluation, the Joint
Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation[24] has published three sets of
standards for evaluations. The Personnel Evaluation Standards[25] was published
in 1988, The Program Evaluation Standards (2nd edition)[26] was published in
1994, and The Student Evaluation Standards[27] was published in 2003.
Each publication presents and elaborates a set of standards for use in a variety of
educational settings. The standards provide guidelines for designing,
implementing, assessing and improving the identified form of evaluation. Each of
the standards has been placed in one of four fundamental categories to promote
educational evaluations that are proper, useful, feasible, and accurate. In these
sets of standards, validity and reliability considerations are covered under the
accuracy topic. For example, the student accuracy standards help ensure that
student evaluations will provide sound, accurate, and credible information about
student learning and performance.

Testing standards[edit]
In the field of psychometrics, the Standards for Educational and Psychological
Testing[28] place standards about validity and reliability, along with errors of
measurement and issues related to the accommodation of individuals
with disabilities. The third and final major topic covers standards related to testing
applications, credentialing, plus testing inprogram evaluation and public policy.

Importance of testing[edit]
Standardised testing is considered important and these tests do assess what is
taught on the national level. They are used to measure objectives and how
schools are meeting educational state standards.
Considering the information presented above, students undergoing the testing
have been told to not spend copious amounts of their own time to study and
prepare for the tests, although students believe they need to do well to ensure
they don't let down their school.[29]
Standardized tests put large amounts of pressure on students. Some children who
are considered at the top of their class choke when it comes to standardized tests
such as the citywide.

A past standardized testing paper using multiple choice questions and answering them in the form as
shown above.

Reflection of testing[edit]
Parents and community activates around the country explain that the education
system are failing student. Standardized testing is included in efforts to improve
the education system. Standardized testing gives a detailed account of how
student improvement and teach effectiveness are evaluated, which can show how
the school effectiveness sits on a national scale.

Public policy[edit]
Standardized testing is used as a public policy strategy to establish stronger
accountability measures for public education. While the National Assessment of

Education Progress (NAEP) has served as an educational barometer for some

thirty years by administering standardized tests on a regular basis to random
schools throughout the United States, efforts over the last decade at the state and
federal levels have mandated annual standardized test administration for all
public schools across the country.
The idea behind the standardized testing policy movement is that testing is the
first step to improving schools, teaching practice, and educational methods
through data collection. Proponents argue that the data generated by the
standardized tests act like a 'report card' for the community, demonstrating how
well local schools are performing. Critics of the movement, however, point to
various discrepancies that result from current state standardized testing practices,
including problems with test validity and reliability and false correlations
(see Simpson's paradox).
Critics[who?] charge that standardized tests became a mandatory curriculum placed
into schools without public debate and without any accountability measures of its
own. Many feel this ignores basic democratic principles in that control of schools'
curricula is removed from local school boards, which are the nominal curricular
authority in the U.S. While some maintain that it would be preferable to simply
introduce mandatory national curricula, others feel that state mandated
standardized testing should stop altogether in order that schools can focus their
efforts on instructing their students as they see fit.
Critics also charge that standardized tests encourage "teaching to the test" at the
expense of creativity and in-depth coverage of subjects not on the test. Multiple
choice tests are criticized for failing to assess skills such as writing. Furthermore,
student's success is being tracked to a teacher's relative performance, making
teacher advancement contingent upon a teacher's success with a student's
academic performance. Ethical and economical questions arise for teachers when
faced with clearly underperforming or underskilled students and a standardized
test.

Advantages[edit]
One of the main advantages of standardized testing is that the results can be
empirically documented; therefore, the test scores can be shown to have a
relative degree ofvalidity and reliability, as well as results which are generalizable
and replicable.[30] This is often contrasted with grades on a school transcript,
which are assigned by individual teachers. It may be difficult to account for
differences in educational culture across schools, difficulty of a given teacher's
curriculum, differences in teaching style, and techniques and biases that affect
grading. This makes standardized tests useful for admissions purposes in higher
education, where a school is trying to compare students from across the nation or
across the world. Examples of such international benchmark tests include the
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) and the Progress
in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). Performance on these exams have
been speculated to change based on the way standards like the Common Core
State Standards (CCSS) line up with top countries across the world.
There are three metrics by which the best performing countries in the TIMMS (the
"A+ countries") are measured: focus, coherence, and rigor. Focus is defined as the
number of topics covered in each grade; the idea is that the fewer topics covered
in each grade, the more focus can be given to each topic. The definition of
coherence is adhering to a sequence of topics covered that follows the natural
progression or logical structure of mathematics. The CCSSM was compared to
both the current state standards and the A+ country standards. With the most
number of topics covered on average, the current state standards had the lowest
focus.[31] The Common Core Standards aim to fix this discrepancy by helping
educators focus on what students need to learn instead of becoming distracted by
extraneous topics. They encourage educational materials to go from covering a
vast array of topics in a shallow manner to a few topics in much more depth.[32]
Standardized tests also remove teacher bias in assessment. Research shows that
teachers create a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy in their assessment of students,
granting those they anticipate will achieve with higher scores and giving those
who they expect to fail lower grades.[33]
Another advantage is aggregation. A well designed standardized test provides an
assessment of an individual's mastery of a domain of knowledge or skill which at
some level of aggregation will provide useful information. That is, while individual
assessments may not be accurate enough for practical purposes, the mean scores
of classes, schools, branches of a company, or other groups may well provide
useful information because of the reduction of error accomplished by increasing
the sample size.
Opponents claim that standardized tests are misused and uncritical judgments of
intelligence and performance, but supporters argue that these aren't negatives of

standardized tests, but criticisms of poorly designed testing regimes. They argue
that testing should and does focus educational resources on the most important
aspects of education imparting a pre-defined set of knowledge and skills and
that other aspects are either less important, or should be added to the testing
scheme.
Former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton has come out in favor of
the Common Core State Standards Initiative and its form of assessment. She said
that Iowa's education system has had a standardized curriculum and examination
for years and that they "see the value in it." [34] Other states, she noted, are
hesitant to implement standardized curriculum and tests because they haven't
had the experience of it. Clinton vocally supports the initiative and standardized
tests.

Disadvantages and criticism[edit]

Validity, efficacy, and predictive power. Many contend that overuse and
misuse of these tests harms teaching and learning by narrowing the curriculum.
According to the group FairTest, when standardized tests are the primary factor in
accountability, schools use the tests to narrowly define curriculum and focus
instruction. Accountability creates an immense pressure to perform and this can
lead to the misuse and misinterpretation of standardized tests.[35] FairTest says
that negative consequences of test misuse include narrowing the curriculum,
teaching to the test, pushing students out of school, driving teachers out of the
profession, and undermining student engagement and school climate. Critics say
that "teaching to the test" disfavors higher-order learning. While it is possible to
use a standardized test without letting its contents determine curriculum and
instruction, frequently, what is not tested is not taught, and how the subject is
tested often becomes a model for how to teach the subject.
Uncritical use of standardized test scores to evaluate teacher and school
performance is inappropriate, because the students' scores are influenced by
three things: what students learn in school, what students learn outside of school,
and the students' innate intelligence.[36] The school only has control over one of
these three factors. Value-added modeling has been proposed to cope with this
criticism by statistically controlling for innate ability and out-of-school contextual
factors.[37] In a value-added system of interpreting test scores, analysts estimate
an expected score for each student, based on factors such as the student's own
previous test scores, primary language, or socioeconomic status. The difference
between the student's expected score and actual score is presumed to be due
primarily to the teacher's efforts.
Notable Opponents. In her book, Now You See It, Cathy Davidson criticizes
standardized tests. She describes our youth as "assembly line kids on an
assembly line model," meaning the use of standardized test as a part of a onesize-fits-all educational model. She also criticizes the narrowness of skills being
tested and labeling children without these skills as failures or as students with

disabilities.[38] Widespread and organized cheating has been a growing culture in

today's reformation of schools.[39]
Education theorist Bill Ayers has commented on the limitations of the
standardized test, writing that "Standardized tests can't measure initiative,
creativity, imagination, conceptual thinking, curiosity, effort, irony, judgment,
commitment, nuance, good will, ethical reflection, or a host of other valuable
dispositions and attributes. What they can measure and count are isolated skills,
specific facts and function, content knowledge, the least interesting and least
significant aspects of learning."[40] In his book, The Shame of the Nation, Jonathan
Kozol argues that students submitted to standardized testing are victims of
"cognitive decapitation." Kozol comes to this realization after speaking to many
children in inner city schools who have no spatial recollection of time, time
periods, and historical events. This is especially the case in schools where due to
shortages in funding and strict accountability policies, schools have done away
with subjects like the arts, history and geography; in order to focus on the contest
of the mandated tests.[41]
On a student and educator level. There is criticism from students themselves
that tests, while standardized, are unfair to the individual student. Some students
are "bad test takers", meaning they get nervous and unfocused on tests.
Therefore, while the test is standard and should provide fair results, the test
takers are at a disadvantage, but have no way to prove their knowledge
otherwise, as there is no other testing alternative that allows students to prove
their knowledge and problem-solving skills.
Some students suffer from test anxiety. Test anxiety applies to standardized tests
as well, where students who may not have test anxiety regularly feel immense
pressure to perform when the stakes are so high. High stakes standardized testing
includes exams like the SAT, the PARCC, and the ACT, where doing well is required
for grade passing or college admission.
Standardized tests are a way to measure the education level of students and
schools on a broad scale. From Kindergarten to 12th grade, students participate in
required test taking. In that amount of time, the average student takes 112
standardized tests, which equates to about 10 tests per year.[42] At this rate, the
average amount of testing takes about 2.3% of total class time.[43] Although
standardized tests were designed to improve the education system, they are
creating many negative effects on students and teachers.
Standardized testing puts pressure not only on students, but on teachers as well.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has proposed educational reform in New Jersey
that pressures teachers not only to "teach to the test," but also have their
students perform at the potential cost of their salary and job security. The reform
calls for performance-based pay that depends on students' performances on

standardized tests and their educational gains. However, students vary based on
cognitive, developmental, and psychological abilities, so it is unfair to teachers
with students with difficulties on the test.[44]
In an April 1995 "meta-analysis" published in the Journal of Educational and
Psychological Measurement, Todd Morrison and Melanie Morrison examined two
dozen validity studies of the test required to get into just about any Masters or
PhD program in America: the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). This study
encompassed more than 5,000 test-takers over the past 30 years. The authors
found that GRE scores accounted for just 6 percent of the variation in grades in
graduate school. The GRE appears to be "virtually useless from a prediction
standpoint," wrote the authors. Repeated studies of the Law School Admissions
Test (LSAT) find the same. The SAT's maker, the Educational Testing Service (ETS),
now claims the SAT is not an "aptitude" test but rather an assessment of
"developed abilities."[45]
Finally, standardized tests are not inexpensive. It has been reported that the
United States spends about 1.7 billion dollars annually on these tests.[46] In 2001,
it was also reported that only three companies (Harcourt Educational
Measurement, CTB McGraw-Hill and Riverside Publishing) design 96% of the tests
taken at the state level.[47]

Scoring information loss[edit]

A test question might require a student to calculate the area of a triangle. Compare the
information provided in these two answers.
The first shows scoring information loss.
The teacher knows whether the student
got the right answer, but does not know
how the student arrived at the answer. If
the answer is wrong, the teacher does not
Area = 7.5 cm2

Base = 5 cm; Height = 3 cm

Area = 1/2(Base Height)
= 1/2(5 cm 3 cm)
= 7.5 cm2

know whether the student was guessing,

made a simple error, or fundamentally
misunderstands the subject.

When tests are scored right-wrong, an important assumption has been made
about learning. The number ofright answers or the sum of item scores (where
partial credit is given) is assumed to be the appropriate and sufficient measure of
current performance status. In addition, a secondary assumption is made that
there is no meaningful information in the wrong answers.
In the first place, a correct answer can be achieved using memorization without
any profound understanding of the underlying content or conceptual structure of

the problem posed. Second, when more than one step for solution is required,
there are often a variety of approaches to answering that will lead to
a correct result. The fact that the answer is correct does not indicate which of the
several possible procedures were used. When the student supplies the answer (or
shows the work) this information is readily available from the original documents.
Second, if the wrong answers were blind guesses, there would be no information
to be found among these answers. On the other hand, if wrong answers reflect
interpretation departures from the expected one, these answers should show an
ordered relationship to whatever the overall test is measuring. This departure
should be dependent upon the level of psycholinguistic maturity of the student
choosing or giving the answer in the vernacular in which the test is written.
In this second case it should be possible to extract this order from the responses
to the test items.[48] Such extraction processes, the Rasch model for instance, are
standard practice for item development among professionals. However, because
the wrong answers are discarded during the scoring process, analysis of these
answers for the information they might contain is seldom undertaken.
Third, although topic-based subtest scores are sometimes provided, the more
common practice is to report the total score or a rescaled version of it. This
rescaling is intended to compare these scores to a standard of some sort. This
further collapse of the test results systematically removes all the information
about which particular items were missed.
Thus, scoring a test rightwrong loses 1) how students achieved
their correct answers, 2) what led them astray towards unacceptable answers and
3) where within the body of the test this departure from expectation occurred.
This commentary suggests that the current scoring procedure conceals the
dynamics of the test-taking process and obscures the capabilities of the students
being assessed. Current scoring practice oversimplifies these data in the initial
scoring step. The result of this procedural error is to obscure diagnostic
information that could help teachers serve their students better. It further
prevents those who are diligently preparing these tests from being able to

observe the information that would otherwise have alerted them to the presence
of this error.
A solution to this problem, known as Response Spectrum Evaluation (RSE),[49] is
currently being developed that appears to be capable of recovering all three of
these forms of information loss, while still providing a numerical scale to establish
current performance status and to track performance change.
This RSE approach provides an interpretation of every answer, whether right or
wrong, that indicates the likely thought processes used by the test taker.
[50] Among other findings, this chapter reports that the recoverable information
explains between two and three times more of the test variability than
considering only the right answers. This massive loss of information can be
explained by the fact that the "wrong" answers are removed from the information
being collected during the scoring process and are no longer available to reveal
the procedural error inherent in right-wrong scoring. The procedure bypasses the
limitations produced by the linear dependencies inherent in test data.

Educational decisions[edit]
Test scores are in some cases used as a sole, mandatory, or primary criterion for
admissions or certification. For example, some U.S. states require high school
graduation examinations. Adequate scores on these exit exams are required for
high school graduation. The General Educational Development test is often used
as an alternative to a high school diploma.
Other applications include tracking (deciding whether a student should be
enrolled in the "fast" or "slow" version of a course) and awarding scholarships. In
the United States, many colleges and universities automatically translate scores
on Advanced Placement tests into college credit, satisfaction of graduation
requirements, or placement in more advanced courses. Generalized tests such as
the SAT or GRE are more often used as one measure among several, when making
admissions decisions. Some public institutions have cutoff scores for the SAT, GPA,
or class rank, for creating classes of applicants to automatically accept or reject.
Heavy reliance on standardized tests for decision-making is often controversial,
for the reasons noted above. Critics often propose emphasizing cumulative or
even non-numerical measures, such as classroom grades or brief individual
assessments (written in prose) from teachers. Supporters argue that test scores

provide a clear-cut, objective standard that minimizes the potential for political
influence or favoritism.
The National Academy of Sciences recommends that major educational decisions
not be based solely on a test score.[51] The use of minimum cut-scores for
entrance or graduation does not imply a single standard, since test scores are
nearly always combined with other minimal criteria such as number of credits,
prerequisite courses, attendance, etc. Test scores are often perceived as the "sole
criteria" simply because they are the most difficult, or the fulfillment of other
criteria is automatically assumed. One exception to this rule is the GED, which has
allowed many people to have their skills recognized even though they did not
meet traditional criteria[citation needed].

See also[edit]
Major topics[edit]
Concept inventory
Educational assessment
Evaluation
List of standardized tests in the United States
Psychometrics
Standards-based assessment
Test (assessment)

Other topics[edit]
Alternative assessment
Campbell's law
Criterion-referenced test
High school graduation exam
IBM 805 Test Scoring Machine
Norm-referenced test
Standards-based education reform

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Further reading[edit]
FairTest, "What's Wrong With Standardized Tests," Fact Sheet.
Ravitch, Diane, "The Uses and Misuses of Tests", in The Schools We Deserve (New
York: Basic Books, 1985), pp. 172181.
Huddleston, Mark W. Boyer, William W.The higher civil service in the United
States: quest for reform. (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996)
Phelps, Richard P. The Effect of Testing on Student Achievement, 1910-2010,
International Journal of Testing, 10(1), 2012.
Phelps, Richard P., Ed. Correcting Fallacies about Educational and Psychological
Testing. (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2008)

 Phelps, Richard P., Standardized Testing Primer. (New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2007)
Harris,Smith and Harris The Myths of Standardized Tests: Why They Don't Tell You
What You Think They Do, Rowman & Littlefield 2011
Phelps, Richard P. The Role and Importance of Standardized Testing in the World of
Teaching and Training

External links[edit]
Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation
Standardized Testing in School
The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing
Definition of Standardized Test from National Council on Measurement in
Education
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Standards-based education reform

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