Quick Study: Standardized Tests

If you think your kids need to spend more time penciling in answer bubbles, the College Board has granted your wish.

In October, it presented a new, SAT-style exam—for eighth graders. Critics pounced, blasting it as a cynical ploy to make more money by extending the angst of college-bound teens to mere tweens. The College Board insists that the test, known as ReadiStep, isn't meant to predict how students will do on the SAT but to help guide "the course of a student's instruction."

Standardized tests' importance in college admissions has been growing for a decade. Now comes the backlash. A month before ReadiStep made headlines, a prestigious panel chaired by William Fitzsimmons, Harvard's dean of admissions, recommended colleges consider whether to even use SATs to help pick incoming students. Designed to help the brightest stand out, whatever their background, SATs now appear to "calcify differences" based on class, the panel lamented. They also criticized pricey test prep.

Just as contentious: federally mandated testing in grades 3 to 12. Created as part of the 2002 No Child Left Behind law, the exams were designed to hold schools and teachers accountable for student progress. Now teachers chafe at the idea of losing their once-secure jobs if they can't help students achieve baseline skills. Parents question the effect of so much testing on already overscheduled kids. And evidence mounts that there may be no such thing as a one-size-fits-all exam.

Oh, the Tests She'll Take
The typical student takes more than two dozen standardized tests by graduation.

SAT
Three hours 45 minutes of reading, writing, and math to test chops for college work. (Grades 11 and 12; $45.)

SAT Subject
One-hour, multiple-choice, in five subject areas. (Grades 9-12; $29-$40.)

PSAT
Tests readiness for the SAT and qualifies students for National Merit Scholarships. (Grades 10 and 11; $13.)

ACT
Like the SAT but claims to be more curriculum-based and also includes a science section. (Grades 11 and 12; $31.)

AP
Score 3 or higher on one of these 37 subject tests and possibly earn college credit. (Grades 9-12; $86.)

Exit
Around 25 states require exams to earn a diploma, as do 634 schools enrolled in International Baccalaureate programs.

State and District
Varied exams, sometimes given several times a year, to keep tabs on local schools.

ReadiStep
For "diagnostic" use, new two-hour multiple-choice test with three SAT-like sections. (Grade 8.)

No Child Left Behind
Mandated tests to help measure if a school meets teaching standards. (Grades 3-12.)

Flash Points

• "Test, label, punish" - Under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), schools face the loss of federal funding or state takeover if students continually score too low on the math and reading tests. The downside is "teaching to the test." In one study, more than half of elementary school teachers said they had cut science instruction to fit in test prep.
• Cost - Like the nervous parent shelling out $1,500 for an SAT prep course, school districts often overstretch their budgets to prepare for high-stakes tests. Thanks largely to the sale of practice materials, revenues for a handful of testing giants like CTB/McGraw-Hill have jumped from $1.42 billion to $2.5 billion since the passage of NCLB.
• What's in an A - A study from the College Board actually gave an edge to grades over standardized tests in predicting college performance. But grades can be inflated or come from schools that aren't well-known to admissions officers. Judging those unknowns is one reason Harvard gives for holding on to the SAT.
• The tyranny - Colleges dread the SAT too: The Fitzsimmons panel called for U.S. News & World Report to stop using scores of incoming freshmen in its well-known rankings.
  
  
  Forward Thinking
• New tests - Thomas Toch, codirector of Education Sector, a Washington, D.C., think tank, says that standardized tests can be designed to match the range of elementary school subjects, include more writing and less multiple choice, and employ "higher order" skills like creativity and problem solving. One recent improvement is the addition of three NCLB-related science tests for select grade levels.
• Choices, choices - Schools like Holy Cross, Wake Forest, and Smith now let applicants decide whether to submit SAT or ACT scores at all-with no penalty if they don't. Thanks to a new College Board policy, colleges can also choose to let students submit only their top scores for each SAT section when students take (and parents pay for) the test multiple times.
• Who's ready to study? - Many colleges are giving more weight to content-driven AP and SAT subject tests. Also gaining favor: International Baccalaureate diplomas, now earned at 634 U.S. schools that pay to adopt the Geneva-based program's standardized curriculum and rigorous exams. "Strong students with AP or IB courses know how to work and manage their time. They come here and do well," says Holy Cross admissions director Ann McDermott.
  The Back-and-Forth
  "People like to use test scores to label students because it's easy and fast. But a student is so much more than a test score."
  --Dennis Van Roekel, president, National Education Association
  
  "We need more accountability, not less. I believe that what gets measured gets done. In Texas, we say, 'In God we trust; all others bring data.'"
  --Margaret Spellings,former U.S. secretary of education
  
  "Enabling students to determine which scores to send to colleges is a great stress reliever. That's what the [Score Choice] policy is all about."
  --Laurence Bunin, College Board
  
  "There are students who may perform brilliantly on the SAT because they've taken it a dozen times. But now we won't know that."
  --Bruce Poch, dean of admissions, Pomona College, on the new Score Choice policy
  
  The Time Line
  
  690
  In China, first female emperor Wu Zetian uses uniform tests—including one to assess poetry-writing skills—to screen government workers.
  
  1900
  College Entrance Examination Board (today's College Board) formed to develop standardized essay exam for Ivy League.
  
  1905
  Alfred Binet, French psychologist, develops early IQ test.
  
  1910
  First widely used standardized test, the Thorndike Handwriting Scale, introduced in American public schools.
  
  1926
  The SAT makes its debut. Developed by Princeton psychologist who administered Army IQ test to screen WWI officer recruits.
  
  1934
  Harvard uses SAT to award scholarships to students of modest means.
  
  1941
  College Board decides essay tests are too cumbersome to grade during wartime; short-answer subbed in.
  
  1941
  Harvard requires SAT of all applicants.
  
  1947
  The College Board helps spawn Educational Testing Service to develop and administer the SAT.
  
  1956
  First Advanced Placement exam.
  
  1959
  Iowa-based American College Testing debuts the ACT as SAT alternative. (More colleges now prefer it over the SAT.)
  
  1968
  Future best-selling author Amy Tan scores in the 400s on the verbal section of the 1,600-point SAT.
  
  1971-1972
  Bill Gates scores a perfect 800 on the math.
  
  1983
  Presidential commission's report "A Nation at Risk" fuels testing boom.
  
  2002
  No Child Left Behind signed into law, requiring annual tests for grades 3-8 (some high school tests added later).
  
  2005
  The new SAT has an essay and a higher perfect score: 2,400.
  
  2006
  Oops! SAT's credibility takes a hit with grading errors on more than 4,000 tests. Possible cause: high humidity at test-scanning site.
  
  2008
  Baylor University offers incoming freshmen financial incentives to retake their SAT. Following criticism it's trying to boost its U.S. News & World Report ranking, Baylor denies it and reverses course.