To the citizens of our country who have managed to graduate from the American public educational system, taking a standardized test is a familiar routine. Indeed, the act of sitting in a quiet room, filling in bubbles with a number-two pencil and raising your hand to go the bathroom is as American a tradition as apple pie on the Fourth of July.
So why stop in ninth grade? The latest proposal in higher education is the idea of extending the use of national standardized testing up through the double-digit grades, all the way to the college level.
In response to recent reports of embarrassingly low levels of the mathematical and verbal capacities of U.S. college-graduates, President George W. Bush has created a higher education commission to consider the possibility of using national standardized testing at the collegiatelevel.
Proponents argue that such a policy would provide data in order to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the higher educational system, create a consistent means of comparison between schools, and offer parents, tax-payers and other concerned citizens accountability from the academy.
"What is clearly lacking is a nationwidesystem for comparative performance purposes, using standard formats," wrote Charles Miller, chairman of the commission, in a memorandum to his fellow commissioners.
Kati Haycock, another commissioner and director of the Education Trust in Washington, agreed that standardized testing would provide useful information.
"Any honest look at the new adult literacy level data for recent college grads leaves you very queasy," she told the New York Times. "And the racial gaps are unconscionable. So doing something on the assessment side is probably important."
There is great opposition to the idea, however, throughout educational and collegiate communities.
One of the greatest concerns is that the traditional freedom, flexibility and independence of liberal arts education will be sacrificed in order to satisfy the requirements of a standardized test.
"Academic freedom and individual pursuit of knowledge would be at stake in such a scenario," said Professor Martha Tucker of Tufts' Education Department. "Our collegesand universities are sites of inquiry,exploration and invention.
"Their strength, and thus their contributionto society, is the capacity to question and wonder, to challenge and thus to contribute to the world at large as well as to the intellectual and professional development of individuals," she added.
Another point of debate regards the use of funding from education budgets that are already stretched tight.
"If you want to spend educational money wisely, don't spend it on standardized tests," said Professor Steve Cohen of Tufts' Education Department, who is also a formerhigh school teacher.
"Use it to lower class sizes in the younger grades and to provide educational activities after school," he added.
The issue of "teaching to the test" has been a contentious element in the debate regarding standardized testing in any school setting, and has been another point of argument in regards to the idea of college tests.
"What I want is for my students to learn a variety of things," Cohen said. "You never know what will confront you in life.
"I hope that my students have learned how to read with understanding, how to think critically, how to write convincingly, how to analyze mathematical and scientific equations and concepts, and how to facechallenges with confidence in theirabilities and an understanding that they will always need to learn more," he said.
