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How Well Do Standardized Tests Measure A Students Abilities?
The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) was the first of a series of common standardized tests to be administered to middle and high school students in the United States. These exams now include the ACT, Advanced Placement (AP) Exams, and state-administered standardized tests such as the New York Regents exams. The tests are designed to measure students’ aptitude for success in the college setting and doubly serve to compare the effectiveness of schools and teachers nationwide. For a variety of reasons, however, school districts and parents are becoming increasingly resistant to the normative metrics of standardized testing. Despite their long history as a focal point in the college admissions process, researchers are now learning that standardized tests may not be the most accurate measure of students’ talents or their aptitude for career success.
The Educational Testing Service (ETS) argues that the SAT exam is an accurate predictor of aptitude because of the significant correlation between exam scores and IQ (Frey et al., 2003). However, IQ itself is also not a comprehensive predictor of student’s ability levels. While IQ is an accurate measure of logic and problem-solving ability, it does not account for creative, verbal, social, or physical abilities; all of which are valuable to academic performance. Furthermore, IQ tells nothing of a student’s work ethic, which is also certainly correlated with scholastic aptitude. According to new research by Nobel Laureate James Heckman, certain features of personality are better predictors of long-term success in children than intelligence as measured by IQ (Heckman, 2016). According to Heckman’s research, the innate qualities of perseverance, curiosity, and collaborative capacity are more important for success than intelligence. This makes sense because positive character attributes such as collaborative capacity are more important to many employers than raw intelligence, particularly in business and entrepreneurship fields (Ryan, 2016).
Although standardized tests aim to level the playing field for students by creating a homogeneous and fair assessment of cognitive ability, the scoring system is extremely vulnerable to socioeconomic bias. Much of the variance in scores for all three sections of the SAT can be explained by family income brackets (Rampell, 2009). Because there are specific methods and patterns that can be learned to improve exam scores, students whose families can pay for private tutoring, study materials, and extracurricular SAT classes inevitably score higher. The practice of "teaching to the test†for the SAT, ACT, and other standardized tests has become commonplace in middle/upper-class districts, but much less so in working-class and impoverished areas. A student who takes a comprehensive SAT class (which can cost thousands of dollars) can improve his or her score by hundreds of points, leading to a wealth gap in exam outcomes. Additionally, the cost of the SAT in 2018 is $64.50 per sitting plus score reporting fees (College Board, 2018), meaning that students who can afford to take the exam several times consecutively to improve scores have the advantage of doing so. Because of this, it can be argued that ability, as measured by standardized tests, is overstated for wealthy students and understated for poor students.
The SAT and ACT will remain important because they allow states to identify underperforming school districts and allow gifted students with lower grades to demonstrate their intelligence. Although standardized testing has its place as one of many factors to be considered in college admissions, it should no longer be held up as a perfect indicator of student ability levels. Additionally, Americans are concerned that the over-emphasis of standardized testing is an unnecessary burden on both students and teachers (Concordia Univ. 2017). School districts, colleges, and governments should therefore shift their focus to alternative success metrics such as Advanced Placement course enrollment, consistency of individual performance, extracurricular involvement, and graduation rates.
Citations
Frey, Meredith C., and Douglas K. Detterman. "Scholastic Assessment or g? The Relationship Between the Scholastic Assessment Test and General Cognitive Ability.†Psychological Science, vol. 15, no. 6, 2004, pp. 373–378., doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00687.x.
Heckman, James J, et al. What Grades and Achievement Tests Measure. University of Chicago Press, 1 Nov. 2016
Ryan, Liz. "12 Qualities Employers Look For When They're Hiring.†Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 3 Mar. 2016
Rampell, Catherine. New York Times. New York Times Magazine. Aug. 2009.
The College Board. "SAT Subject Tests Information†2018.
Room 241 Team. "Do Standardized Tests Accurately Show Students' Abilities?†Concordia University-Portland, 21 June 2012
