Spectator editorial: Standard schooling
Uniform testing is not the way to assess higher education
Spectator Staff
Issue date: 2/13/06 Section: Editorial/Opinion
The purpose of higher education is to provide students with a quality education that is tailored to their interests and abilities. Nationwide standardized testing would not be a fitting addition to the college experience.
A commission appointed by President Bush is exploring the possibility of implementing standardized testing in higher education, according to a New York Times article. Advocates argue doing so would provide useful information to students, parents, taxpayers and employers, increasing accountability in higher education.
But establishing standardized testing would be an inappropriate and impractical move.
Students select their universities based on the programs and resources each has to offer, searching for an institution that caters to their needs and aspirations. No standardized test could ever capture the quality of a university.
Furthermore, as critics of the initiative argue, standardized testing moves toward a uniform curriculum. This dynamic is not in alignment with the purpose of higher education, which is to teach students to think critically and foster the free exchange of ideas.
Standardized testing would create more bureaucracy and cost a lot of money, which could translate into higher tuition or the diversion of other much-needed funding.
And if the amount of funding a university receives were to depend on how it performs, that would create an unfair standard.
Universities with students of disadvantaged backgrounds - who may not have come from the best schools - would be penalized, driving their quality of education downward even more.
Students, parents, taxpayers and employers already have plenty of ways to evaluate institutions of higher education - everything from published rankings to evaluations on the state level to observing the type of employees and citizens a university is producing. A standardized test would provide data that fails to capture the criteria by which universities should really be asessed.
A commission appointed by President Bush is exploring the possibility of implementing standardized testing in higher education, according to a New York Times article. Advocates argue doing so would provide useful information to students, parents, taxpayers and employers, increasing accountability in higher education.
But establishing standardized testing would be an inappropriate and impractical move.
Students select their universities based on the programs and resources each has to offer, searching for an institution that caters to their needs and aspirations. No standardized test could ever capture the quality of a university.
Furthermore, as critics of the initiative argue, standardized testing moves toward a uniform curriculum. This dynamic is not in alignment with the purpose of higher education, which is to teach students to think critically and foster the free exchange of ideas.
Standardized testing would create more bureaucracy and cost a lot of money, which could translate into higher tuition or the diversion of other much-needed funding.
And if the amount of funding a university receives were to depend on how it performs, that would create an unfair standard.
Universities with students of disadvantaged backgrounds - who may not have come from the best schools - would be penalized, driving their quality of education downward even more.
Students, parents, taxpayers and employers already have plenty of ways to evaluate institutions of higher education - everything from published rankings to evaluations on the state level to observing the type of employees and citizens a university is producing. A standardized test would provide data that fails to capture the criteria by which universities should really be asessed.