Meghan Quaid

An important aspect of testing is how a student chooses to prepare or not prepare.  Test preparation comes in many different forms.  It can be a tutoring service, an educational program or “a learning tool designed to increase students’ performance on standardized tests” (https://bit.ly/3esWdaB).

 

Some of the most common preparation options are the following: mock exams, mind maps, study guides, courses, tutors.  Mock exams are exactly what they sound like.  They help the students see the structure and content of the exam and get a handle on their current performance and depth of knowledge.  Mind maps are a way for students to see the relevant concepts and their relationships.  Study guides are similar to mind maps except they are typically written out and can contain published materials.  Courses are “designed to expose students to the breadth of topics tested on the relevant exam and guide them through the process of studying” (https://bit.ly/3esWdaB).  Tutors work closely with the student to improve their academic abilities.  These resources can be provided by companies and educators and will either come in the form of hard copy works or more technology-based tools.  

 

However, these are not the only recommended courses of action for studying.  According to The Learning Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill there are 4 main steps and components to test prep. The first is finding out what you already know.  They recommend grabbing the course materials, notes, and syllabi and “determine what you have already learned so you do not waste your time studying what you already know” (https://unc.live/3v9ZdiQ).  This allows you to make a list of key concepts that you can quiz yourself on when hiding notes and readings.  The second step is to make a study plan and study guide.  Once you know how much you know you can make a study guide that “merges the main ideas from class notes and readings” (https://unc.live/3v9ZdiQ).  Researchers found that students who utilize study guides scored higher on assessments.  They also found that those you used study guides “experienced significantly less stress than their peers” (https://unc.live/3v9ZdiQ).  There are 4 options for a study plan: map it out, try flash cards, you don’t have to go it alone, and ask and answer questions.  The third step is to schedule your studying.  It is better to study in multiple smaller periods of time than to cram study sessions in a large chunk.  Students need to account for their study time.  After finding out what concepts you need to focus more on, estimate how long you need to spend on each section.  Another piece of advice is to break it down.  Students need to make a study plan that will allow them plenty of time to study material and to review.  It is also crucial to take breaks.  Brains work better when they have rest.  The Learning Center recommends the Pomodoro technique.  Lastly you need to space it out.  The distribution of studying over several days or weeks is the most effective practice.  Step 4 is to test yourself.  Once the student completes their study plan they need to test themselves again.  As they are working through the study plan they should sort the concepts into “know” and “don’t know”.  This way when they are done they can go back and review what the need to.  If the student feels stuck on a particular concept they should keep at it and not give up, and most importantly do not engage in late night study sessions. 

 

There is some criticism surrounding the test prep industry.  The main one is the fact that not all of them are actually going to have an effect on the student’s scores. The test prep for the “SAT and the GMAT is a highly lucrative field” (https://bit.ly/3esWdaB).  A lot of parents also note that the strain of test prep really takes a toll on their children. 

 

The biggest controversy and criticism with test prep, however, is the cost.  The College Board has insisted that the SAT is a test that simply cannot be studied for, instead they recommend “coaching”.  This coaching industry became worth almost $1 billion (https://bit.ly/3dMpEWk).  One private SAT tutor revealed that he made “$1000 an hour coaching the children of wealthy parents”(https://bit.ly/3dMpEWk).  A very popular test prep company claims “that a student can get a 1500+ on the SAT for a price of $2000” (https://bit.ly/3dMpEWk).  Another tutoring and test prep company, Private Prep, runs a scholarship program with both financial aid and academic criteria.  Private Prep clients “gain 50% of the points of the points available to them” (https://bit.ly/3dMpEWk).  

 

Recently because of the Varsity Blues scandal and the pandemic many colleges and universities are not requiring SAT or ACT scores and are insteading looking at the GPA as the best predictor of collegiate success. The pandemic has accelerated these feelings as many schools are realizing that standardized tests and test preparation puts students who cannot afford 1000s of dollars of test prep at a disadvantage. https://bit.ly/3xdyAvk 

 

Personally, I think that the test preparation industry only adds to the pressure that so many high school students face, and adds to the poor mental health of students during a very stressful time in their times.  I think that the elimination of the tests, and with them the test prep industry, would greatly alleviate the stress students feel and would make the college application process more fair for all students regardless of their socioeconomic status. 

 

In this civic issue blog I will be looking into another aspect of testing” standardized testing.  Standardized Testing began in the United States in the 19th century, but began to be more prevalent in the 20th century.  Immigration was a main cause for the introduction of standardized testing because the United States wanted to test social roles and “find social power and status” (https://bit.ly/3sgqWN5 ).  

It did not become offered by the College Entrance Examination for college admissions until 1900.  The original test was offered in nine subjects and was meant for “top boarding schools to standardize curriculum” (https://bit.ly/3sgqWN5).    It was also only made of essays and not made for widespread testing.  The Alpha and Beta tests were made during World War I to place new recruits into assignments based on their scores and intelligence.  Before the tests we are familiar with today, soldiers were taking a form of an IQ test called the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test.  The SAT was actually based off of these Army IQ tests and would help determine the recruit’s intelligence and problem-solving skills. 

The mass testing of middle and high schoolers did not begin until the 1970s and by the 1980s all students were being tested across the nation.  Schools were paying millions of dollars on these “large scale annual academic tests”(https://bit.ly/3sgqWN5).  The want from the federal government to create and see comparisons across the public education system led to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and The No Child Left Behind Act. 

What is specifically of note for The No Child Left Behind Act is that it wanted to hold teachers and students accountable, “including the educational gap between minority and non-minority children in public schools”(https://bit.ly/3sgqWN5). These federal laws allowed the state to set its own curriculum, but still had the federal government evaluating the understanding of the state-chosen material through standardized tests. The funding schools would receive was completely determined by the students’ results.  In 205 The Every Student Succeeds Act replaced the No Child Left Behind Act, and at this point the tests were starting to be viewed as quite controversial because it was so high-stakes for both the students and teachers.  

Critics of standardized tests have been trying to convey how students’ scores “are most strongly correlated to a student’s life circumstances” (https://wapo.st/3uWg7lf).  These same critics believed that actual reform comes with addressing the emotional and social needs of students, the conditions of their home life, and the conditions of the school building itself.  This past spring the Department of Education has begun to allow some to not give these tests.  As well as forgoing standardized testing, a lot of colleges and universities are not requiring ACT or SAT scores.   

Other arguments against standardized testing are the fact that it is only measuring the student’s ability to take tests and their actual retention of knowledge.  Another is that these tests have racist, sexist, and classist aspects.  According to Professor Emiretus “discrimination is purposefully built in to standardized tests” (https://bit.ly/2RqWC5A) .  Young Whan Choi argues that these organizations rely on these racially biased questions to demonstrate a wide range of scores.  Choi also brings up the point that wealthier students are going to have higher scores because they have access to outside resources that allow them to prepare.  Carly Berwich argues that “girls tend to do less well than boys and perform better on questions with open-ended answers”(https://bit.ly/2RqWC5A) . Another argument against standardized testing is that they are not accurate measures of the teachers.  Only 16 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia have stopped using these tests as teacher evaluations.  The main argument comes from the fact that what is taught is so different from what is on the standardized tests.  Lastly, the tests are really not a good predictor of the future success of students.  The tests themselves can only evaluate “rote knowledge of math, science, and English” (https://bit.ly/2RqWC5A).  They do not assess any aspects of creativity, critical thinking, artistic ability, or problem solving which are still valuable areas of knowledge.  According to a study of 55,084 Chicago public school students, grade point average is 5 times stronger at indicating college success than standardized tests.  Matthew M. Chingos, the Vice President of Education Data and Policy at the Urban Institute states that “earning good grades requires consistent behaviors over time–showing up to class and participating, turning in assignments, taking quizzes, etc.–whereas students could in theory do well on a test even if they do not have the motivation and perseverance needed to achieve good grades” (https://bit.ly/2RqWC5A).  

I think that to improve this system a long and hard look needs to be taken.  People in power need to realize that these tests are not reflecting the whole students, but just the part of them that can properly take a test.  Since the Obama administration and the introduction of Common Core Standards a wide array of psychologists and pediatricians have seen an increase in student stress (https://bit.ly/3abfSe4).  Across Colorado, high school students “take between 8 hours and 45 minutes and 12 hours and 45 minutes of tests each year” (https://bit.ly/3abfSe4).  A professor of psychology at the University of Hartford has been studying the link between anxiety in children and “high stakes-testing” for six years.  She conducted a study of elementary aged students in Michigan and found that “students reported being significantly more anxious when taking statewide assessments compared to other classroom tests” (https://bit.ly/3abfSe4).  

The system is in desperate need of change.  It is affecting the mental health of America’s students and teachers and is an outdated and biased system.  The goal needs to be to prioritize students who are underprivileged and need assistance so they are able to have the chance to succeed as much as students who have the resources to attend private school.     

 

The College Board is an aspect of the high school experience that I am sure most do not have positive memories with.  They are most commonly talked about among students as a part of the SAT and AP exams, both of which cost a lot of money to take, as well as other placement tests and accuplacers.  I am most interested in figuring out and understanding the history and purpose of The College Board.

 

The College Board is classified as an American not-for-profit organization.  This means that it was organized and created for the benefit and betterment of a certain group of people and society.  It was formed in December of 1989 and was originally called the College Entrance Examination Board to include higher education.  The College Board uses a “membership association of institutions” which includes more than 6000 schools, universities, and other organizations centered around education.  The College Board is in charge of administering standardized tests and different types of curriculum to K-12 school and some post-secondary education establishments.  The College Board’s headquarters are in New York City and David Coleman has been the CEO since October of 2012 and their current President is Jeremy Singer.  Along with administering tests that all cost money to take, the College Board also provides some resources for students, teachers, and parents/guardians.  These resources assist in college planning, admissions, financial aid, and the retention rates of different schools they are applying to. 

 

The origin of the College Board was with the CEEB (College Entrance Examination Board) and its founding at Columbia University in December of 1899.  Fifteen representatives from universities and high school preparatory academies came together to create this organization whose intent was to “adopt and publish a statement of the ground which should be covered and of the aims which should be taught by secondary school…”(https://bit.ly/2NWE77U). Along with the tests and programs the College Board has created a set of CEEB codes that correspond to universities that you can use to make sure that your transcripts are correctly sent to the proper location. 

 

The main test that the College Board provides is the SAT and the SAT Subject Tests.  This test is fee-based, standardized, and used for college admissions in the United States.  How the test is created, administered, and used in the United States is the job of the College Board, but how it is scored is the job of the Educational Testing Service.  The test itself has two sections: Evidence-based Reading and Writing  and Mathematics, and each section is 800 points.  The test is typically taken the student’s junior or senior year and is in competition with the ACT.  The test without the essay portion is $49.50 and the essay section (optional) is an additional $15 .  There are also fees for registering late ($30), registering by phone ($15), and changing the test date, center or type ($30).  Because of these fees and others, a student could be paying upwards of $200 for this one test.  The SAT subject test’s purpose is to see how a student performs in a certain area like math, science, or history.  A student is allowed to take up to three of the SAT subject tests any date they would like at a simple cost of the pre-administration registration fee ($26) and a flat fee of $22.  However, these Subject Tests have been recently discontinued and will be continually phased out over this summer for international students. 

 

The other main program that the College Board provides that I will be discussing is the Advanced Placement Program.  This program is considered an “extensive program that offers high school students the chance to participate in college-level classes”(https://bit.ly/2NWE77U), and plays a large part in the college admissions process.  It is said that how well a student does in these courses is a good reflection of their “intellectual capacity” and “genuine interest in learning”(https://bit.ly/2NWE77U).  A big appeal to these courses is that they can gain real college credit if they score high enough on the AP exam(which cost $94).  However, whether or note students receive credit or not for taking the course and test is completely dependent on each college’s individual policy. 

 

I feel that when discussing The College Board it is important to discuss the controversy with the organization and with the individual tests.  According to an article written by The New York Times, The University of California will no longer be using SAT or ACT scores in admissions decisions because they believe it is putting less wealthy students at a disadvantage.  Their decisions renewed this debate centering around why this test created by “rich prep schoolers” (https://nyti.ms/31m7XFX)  is still required on admission when it is clearly targeting marginalized groups.  The article notes that these tests are “inherently biased in favor of affluent, white, and Asian-American students”(https://nyti.ms/31m7XFX) . It also remarks that these tests can be mastered by students who can afford private coaching and test preparation courses.  The article also states that an alternative and much fairer way to decide which students warrant admission is teacher recommendations, which can give a clearer and more personal insight into various facets of the student.  

 

I recently read an article posted by Halle Edwards on the blog, Prep Scholar and it was a big inspiration for this writing.  It gave the 5 worst problems with the College Board’s Advanced Placement Program.  The first problem had to do with the fact that the AP program is growing too fast for some schools and it is leading to more failed tests.  This is putting low income schools at a disadvantage because they do not have the resources to keep up with the new AP curriculum. The second problem Edwards mentions is an extension of the first.  She writes that the AP program “still tends to be seen as a shallow, memorization-based program” (https://bit.ly/2PxisDs)  and that most AP classes focus more on breadth than depth.  The third problem is that college credit for the AP class you take is not guaranteed, and more colleges are “getting stingy about granting AP credit”(https://bit.ly/2PxisDs) .  Most of the top-tier, private colleges are the ones least likely to provide credit for high AP scores.  Problem 4 focuses more on the effect AP classes have on the students.  Edwards writes that “students are overloading themselves, thinking that taking 10 AP classes is the ticket to a selective school”.  This mindset is dangerous to the students mental health and can lead to more burnt out students who are throwing their entire lives into these courses that cannot guarantee them admission or credit.  The last problem Edawrds looks at deals with the financial aspect of the AP program.  Students who have the funds to pay for tutors and studying programs are most likely to do better than students who do not have access to these resources.  This financial aspect does not effect just individual students, but whole school systems as well.  Schools with less well-funded budgets may not even have access to AP programs. 

 

The College Board has a long and complex history.  There have been several controversies and many criticisms of its features and programs.  The SAT and the Advanced Placement Program is actively excluding students who lack proper funds for tutors which does not make these test the great equalizer they claim to be.