What are the problems of the academic ability judging method of college entrance examination and the newly devised ability judging method?

ByAlberto G.

In Japan, it is a "college entrance examination exam" that has been introduced for a long period of 20 years, but it is difficult to achieve the initial object of measuring the basic proficiency of academic achievement, It is studying to introduce degree test (tentative name) ". There seems to be not only academic ability for students but also the tendency to ask "ability to learn" in the United States, and various methods are tried at all levels.

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◆ Current admission system "SAT"
To those commonly widely used in the American university entrance examination systemSAT(Scholastic Assessment Test) andACTThere is an exam called American College Testing program, and it is obligatory to submit either result when going to university in the United States. Among them, the widely used SAT was introduced in 1901 as a "standard test" to unify grading criteria different from high school throughout the United States. It is incorporated in the entrance examination system as one of the criteria to judge whether or not it is equipped with academic ability to be studied at the university that the student desires and judging pass / fail.

It is such SAT, but there are voices pointing out the problem as being unable to say that students are correctly judging. Located in Chicago, IllinoisDePaul UniversityJohn Borkenstead, who oversees the entrance examination work at the same time, says, "Current SAT puts too much emphasis on college entrance examinations themselves." The problem is that it is a system that is disadvantageous to economically disadvantaged students and minority students, that there is a tendency to fix the course after admission, and the result shown by SATIt only foresees the results for one or two years after entrance to the university, Etc. are already mentioned, and in the United States already 800% of four-year universities, which is 20% of the total,SAT submission is not mandatoryThere is a present state of it. "SAT does not reflect the original capabilities of students," Mr. Borkenstead's DePaul University is also one such university.

Students are measured by SATCognitive abilityOn the other hand, at a university that does not require SAT as a basis, students 'own "optimism", "curiosity" "resilience", and "guts" are students' It plays an important role in long-term growth.

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◆ Problems of SAT
However, it is also true that there are opinions that it is difficult to quantify the elements of mental power, compared with academic ability tests like SAT which are easy to evaluate by converting to scores. A staff member at the university to which Balkenstead belongs also raises a voice saying "It can not measure the part of the heart."

Although it can be said that SAT, which is a "standard test", should be evaluated equally for everyone, at present it is not necessarily as ideal as it is. The College Board (university entrance examination center) that supervises the SAT also recognizes the problem and implements revisions such as making the paper issues selective, but the social and economic disparity still affects the score of SAT I can not deny what I am giving. The full score of the SAT is 2400 points in 3 courses, but as a result of an investigation by an economist, the average scores of students who are not economically disadvantaged are higher than those of other studentsIt is 784 lowerThe trend has been revealed.

Not only from the College Board but also from the university side are raising questions asking whether the only thing that should be asked of students is the "brain's power", which mainly means memory. He is a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania and an AmericanMacArthur FoundationAngela Duckworth who has won the "Genius Award (Genius Prize)" that funds personnel who are active in various fields each year every year is one of the reasons for his successguts(Grit) "is cited. Mr. Duckworth expresses its definition as "the ability to continue interest and effort for long-term goals" and "can predict success more reliably than what is represented by numerical values ​​like conventional standard tests" I will.

◆New capability determination method
College Board · Although both universities recognize the problem of the current SAT method, the methodology for assessing the nature of students is not yet established. According to the conventional method, personal figures read from self-thesis, interviews, extracurricular activity records and recommendation texts, etc. are person figures, but organizations that operate SATETSMr. Patrick Kilonen, one of the executives of the company, said about the difficulty of the evaluation method "Rorschach testIt is a very complicated one, like, "

ByMjZ Photography

In 2010, the College Board classified 12 elements that 100 universities had made important for success to "Cognition / knowledge(Cognitive / intellectual: knowledge and proficiency in general principle) ","Inter-personal relationship(Interpersonal: understanding curiosity and diversity ","Personal qualities(Intrapersonal: adaptability / perseverance) ".

College Board conducted a verification experiment based on this. Individuals to studentsbackgroundYaexperience, And, for example, under the assumed circumstances such as "I was involved in a project, the members of the project are sitting in the room, but all are still silent"What kind of action to take, We conducted a survey to answer the question, which is different from cognitive abilityCuriosityYaAbility to understand diversity,Adaptability levelThe results at the university andGreat correlationIt was revealed to have. In addition, the result was also between social group and raceSmall variationIt was confirmed that there was a possibility that it could be used as a method of person judgment at the time of entrance examination.

Based on this result, it can be used online in ETSPPI(Personal / Potential Index) is starting the evaluation program called. This program aims to instruct students' leaders who are the subjects of the evaluation of "communication skills", "moral and sincerity", "knowledge and creativity", "planability and operational ability", "resilience" Teamwork ", and it is also possible to add comments about scoring if you select it.

ByMorgan

At DePaul University where Mr. Borkenstead belongs, we are implementing our own testing program using paper issues. 10% of students in FY2012 will take the exam not on the traditional SAT · ACT but on the problem of measuring leadership ability and ability to achieve long term goals. Currently I am verifying the validity of the new program, but this university compares the percentage of students who entered under the old and new programs promoted to second grade without being retired. Then, 84% of the students who had undergone conventional examination, 85% of the students who received the exam of the new programAlmost coincidentI understood that. In other words, it means that the students who entered in the examination of the new method and the other students have given equal grades,The method of selection in the new program is validIt is shown in the form shown.

At the same time, however, it is a fact that there is a problem of "cheating answers" in this method. MassachusettsBrandeis UniversityAndrew Fraugel, who oversees the entrance examination work of Mr. Andrew Fraugel, said, "In the case that particularly important results are influenced,It is obvious that attempts are made to cheat the measurement resultsIt is cited as one of the reasons not to adopt it for the entrance examination of the same university. Meanwhile, at Brandeis University as well, traditional methods of evaluating alternative to SAT · ACT are being sought. In the entrance examination for the period of September 2014, applicants introduced a program to take the transcripts and recommendation letters doing.

In this way, it can be said that the discussion on the method of measuring the qualities of students is still continuing. I write numerous books on educationNicholas LeemanHe asserts its effectiveness as a traditional test method of measuring cognitive abilities as "it can express the actual ability of the brain". Mr. Borkenstead said that "There is no end" in an attempt to continue pursuing a new method without a grip while being pushed back by the aforementioned verification result.