Those who celebrated the end of government-mandated standardized testing at their high school graduations may be eating their words.
Discussions about the assessment of colleges and universities have raised the idea of implementing standardized testing for college students, sparking heated debate on both a governmental and collegiate level.
In September 2006, the Spellings Commission, appointed by current U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, completed its report on the state of higher education in the United States. The findings and recommendations of the report have since raised questions about the exact roles of colleges and universities, and how to best assess individual students' experiences with higher education.
The report claimed that, among the many difficulties facing colleges and universities in the U.S., there was "a lack of clear, reliable information about the cost and quality of postsecondary institutions, along with a remarkable absence of accountability mechanisms to ensure that colleges succeed in educating students."
According to the report, accountability mechanisms would be implemented in order to give policymakers "more comprehensive data to help them decide whether the national investment in higher education is paying off and how taxpayer dollars could be used more effectively."
Steve Cohen, a lecturer in the education department at Tufts, said that although there were various accountability methods discussed in the report, standardized testing prevailed as the major method proposed - but under the veil of other terms.
"Most of the people on that commission did want to see a standardized test for college students, and they talked about it under the guise of accountability," Cohen said. "Accountability seems to be the watchword in education these days."
Cohen said that while the move toward more accountability in education extends beyond colleges and into the high school level, the rising cost of college has made the subject more pressing on the university level.
"There is a question about the effectiveness of college instruction, in the same way there is about the effectiveness of high school instruction," Cohen said. "And I do think that the price of college has added fuel to that fire."
Cohen believes that any standardized test for colleges would essentially be trying to answer the question, "Am I getting my money's worth?"
Cohen added, however, that this type of question has a way of spawning more questions, including some about the basic principles of what a college education should be for. "Once you start asking that question, you have 100,000 other questions to ask," Cohen said. "How do I know that I learned this in college and not in high school? ... What is it that I'm supposed to learn that I'm supposed to take with me?"
Cohen also cautioned that, in addition to coping with the complexities of designing a test to measure college-level learning, the results of the test might not give a complete representation of a given student or college's situation. "Numbers can often tell you a piece of the puzzle, but not necessarily the whole thing," Cohen said.
Elizabeth Field, a sophomore, said that plans to introduce standardized testing into the collegiate world overlook the diverse nature of higher education options in the United States.
Field said that she imagines the approach would be more suited to a country with more homogenized university systems.
"I think of the European system, more specifically the French system, where every school is supposed to be the same," Field said. "But here you have a bunch of different colleges and universities, and there's no way you could standardize that."
Field also said that she believes that, if anything, such tests would have a deleterious effect on schools by lowering standards.
"I think it would be actually harmful," she said. "The only thing you could possibly do would be to aim for the lowest common denominator."
Senior Ian Greaves said that if he knew he had to take a test to graduate at the end of this semester he would feel, "Insulted. In a word."
"It's somehow suggesting that the quality of all higher education in the country at present is somehow uniform, and that we can apply one test to everyone," Greaves said. "It assumes that institutions can't self-regulate, that they can't be interested in their own well-being."
Greaves added that he feels that the government should be spending time on more pressing issues.
"My biggest criticism is that it's government oversight where we don't need it, when there are other areas that the government needs to be looking at itself," Greaves said. "I think it's gross misallocation of government energy."
Cohen said that since the report was first released, the move toward a standardized testing model for colleges has been stalled as some of the recommendations of the report have come under fire.
According to Cohen, whether these plans move ahead will be largely determined by the next president.
"A lot of people are waiting to see what the change in administration will do, whether it's a Democrat or Republican," Cohen said. "I can't believe that either nominee would keep Margaret Spellings as secretary of education. And so - will the new secretary of education have the same idea? I don't know."
