Editorial: College-level standardized tests fail to make sense

Nine people on a federal commission spent the past year working
to draft a proposal in an attempt to standardize students’
benefits from their college educations.

The Commission on the Future of Higher Education calls on
institutions of higher education to gather and release quantifiable
information concerning students’ performance.

One of the proposed methods to achieve this goal includes
requiring schools to gather data about student learning by
implementing standardized tests.

Such tests would provide the public with the data needed to
allow comparisons among educational institutions nationally, they
say.

But, for practicality and logistical reasons, this sort of
proposal is just not feasible.

Unless the commission can somehow combine elements to produce a
super-test, there is just no logical motive to standardize the
education a student from a vocational school receives with a
student from a specialty graduate or undergraduate school.

Producing a standard against which all postsecondary school
students are measured undermines the very purpose of higher
education.

Postsecondary schooling is voluntary, and those who attend do so
to cultivate some special area of expertise.

To continue to standardize the unique ambitions of individuals
after they have already graduated from primary and secondary
schooling ““ where they should have already proved their
proficiency in basic skills ““ diminishes what the educational
institution offers.

The motive to track student progress and create accountability
and comparability in colleges is admirable, but the basic math and
English learning the commission hopes to ensure ought to have been
dealt with at the high school level, and therefore no longer an
issue.

When a large portion of students in postsecondary school never
take a math class because their fields do not require it and others
never take a science class for the same reason, testing such things
would not be a measure of anything to do with college at all.

The commission should recognize that the root of problems in
higher education lies earlier on, particularly in high schools. The
more productive route would be to place focus on high schools and
attempt to standardize education on that level to assure quality
education.

The proposal draft touched on this idea, but unfortunately the
focus had to remain on postsecondary issues, as it was not written
by the Commission on the Future of High School.

Nine people worked over the course of the past year to produce
solutions, and the outcome is a drafted proposal with vague
language that has left trails of questions and empty pits where
concrete details are needed.

The airy goals listed ““ such as accountability,
understanding student progress, assuring quality education ““
are certainly important, but they all should also be obvious
objectives for all administrators of higher education
institutions.

For the amount of time and resources spent, much more tangible
solutions to the issue should have been presented.

At a time where students want to pursue their interests and may
have to take the GRE, MCAT, LSAT, DATs, BAR or other standardized
tests, another mandatory exam could just be the straw that breaks
the camel’s back.

Unsigned editorials represent a majority opinion of the
Daily Bruin Editorial Board.