Students have always been accustomed to taking standardized tests (think the ERB, SAT, ACT, TCAP), but should colleges also administer similar tests in order to find out how their students are doing? And what should those tests measure? Content? Critical thinking skills? You may be surprised to discover that some schools already give these exams to a small sample of their students, although they don't all make those scores public.
It might sound like a sensible idea, but there are numerous questions. Will professors start teaching to the test? What role does the student's own motivation play in their learning? What do you do about the wildly different ability levels of entering students? Who decides what you should know before you graduate?
Read the comments at the end of the article too. They make some good points.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/education/trying-to-find-a-measure-for-how-well-colleges-do.html?ref=education
No comments:
Post a Comment