DOCUMENT RESUME ED 338 644 TM 017 131 TITLE National Tests
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DOCUMENT RESUME TM 017 131 ED 338 644 Other Countries ExpectTheir TITLE National Tests: What Students To Know. Humanities (NFAH), INSTITUTION National Endowment for the Washington, D.C. Inc., Alton, Ill. SPONS AGENCY John M. Olin Foundation, PUB DATE 91 report also received fromthe NOTE 117p,; Funding for this Philip F. Schoch Trust. Evaluative/Feasibility (142) -- PUB TYPE Reports - Tests/Evaluation Instruments(160) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC06 Plus Postage. Achievement Tests; Curriculum DESCRIPTORS *Academic Standards; Development; EducationalPolicy; Elementary Secondary Education; *Foreign Countries;*Humanities; Knowledge Level; *National CompetencyTests; National Programs; *Standardized Tests; *TestingPrograms; Test Items Japan; Performance Based IDENTIFIERS European Community; France; Evaluation; United Kingdom;United States; West Germany ABSTRACT Several leaders ineducation have concludedthat the testing. United States should have someform of national achievement Such tests are proposed aspart of the "America2000" education countries will be strategy. Believing thatthe experience of other citizens, the useful to educators,policymakers, and concerned examples, in National Endowment for theHumanities provides English Tests in the this document, of testsadministered in other countries. humanities is humanities are sampled, becausethe importance of the and the sciences. The more likely to beoverlooked than mathematics setting examinations sampled make itclear that other nations are Most advocates of national very high standardsfor the humanities. should demonstrate testing in the United Statesargue that the tests that students can use theknowledge they have gained(performance entail a tests). It is emphasized thatnational testing need not Germany, United national curriculum. Testexamples from France, West Kingdom, Japan, and theEuropean Schools of theEuropean Community ib included. (SLD) are presented. A22-item list of references *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied byEDRS are the best that canbe made frcrl the original document. *********************************************************************** 4h =II' , = US OSPARTMINT 0PImam Mc* M laucelente Remo* end Imporentere Abh EC ATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (En) flue document hes been reproduced u mewed from Me person oroseanitebon ononeting CI Minor changes hoe been madeto rmprow I reproduction oteene * Pomo of Wow ot op000ns olsled inI h doetr moo do ool necesurny momentoffseild OERI poerbon or policy Ab. vor hat OtherCountries Expect TheirStudekits toKnow National Endowmentfor the Humanities Lynne V. Cheney,Chairman Washington, D.C. 1991 :. /Oh ilk a r.) S. BEST COPYAVAILABLE National Tests: What Other CountriesExpect Their Students toKnow National Endowment for theHumanities Lynne V. Cheney, Chairman Washington, D.C. 1991 Pages 45 to 58 are protected under copyright© 1989, Southern Examining Group. Pages 59 to 60 are protected under copyright0 1989, The Associated Examining Board. Contents Introduction 1 Note on the Tests 7 Republic of France 9 Federal Republic of Germany 25 England and Wales 43 Japan 61 European Community 107 Works Consulted 114 Acknowledgments 116 Introduction How can we measure what students havelearned? How can we judge which teachers and schools are most effective? How can we know when we have made progress in improving American education? Such questions have leda number of education leaders to conclude that the United States shouldhave some form of national achievement testing. TheNational Center on Education and the Economy in Rochester, NewYork, and the Learning Research and Development Centerat the University of Pittsburgh have beguna joint project to develop a system of examinations. President George Bushand Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander have called forvoluntary national achievement testsas part of the "America 2000" education strategy. Central to this activityare the national education goals established by the President and thegovernors of the 50 states. The President and governors have declared,for example, that by the year 2000 all students shouldbe competent in "challeng- ing subject matter including English,mathematics, science, history, and geography." Implicit in suchgoals, the President and governors have noted, is the needto define what students should know and toassess how well they have learned it. Other nations do thisnow. In the belief that their experi- ence will be useful to educators, policymakers, and othercon- cerned citizens, the National Endowmentfor the Humanities is providing examples in English oftests given in France, Germany, Great Britain, and Japan,as well as in the European Schools established by the EuropeanCommunity. We have focused on tests in the humanitiesbecause these subjects are the primaryconcern of this agency and because the humanities are sometimes overlooked.Almost everyone immediately understands the value ofmathematics and science in a competitive world, but theimportance of the Introduction 1 humanities is not always so obvious. We need to bereminded from time to time that a democracy is stronger whenits citi- zens know its history. Self-government thrives when people understand the practices and institutions throughwhich it workswhen they know how those practices andinstitutions evolved, what threatened them, and what strengthened them. A society is also stronger,we need to remind ourselves, when its people understand histories and cultures different from their own. One of the most important points implicit in thetests gathered here is the degree to which othernations have iden- tified the humanities asa source of strength. The high expec- tations they have are manifest in the demandingquestions they ask, not only about theirown history and culture, but also about those of other societies. Could Americanstudents answer the questions that the French ask about the foreign policy of the United States? That the Britishask about American progressivism? That the European Schoolsask about South Carolina's secession? Dowe expect our students to know American historyas well as other countries expect their students to know it? Dowe expect our students to know the history of other nations in anythingapproaching the detail with which theyare expected to know ours? The examinations of other countries make clearthat they are setting very high standards for the humanities. Doesn't the United States AlreadyHave Achievement Tests? Achievement testing doesgo on in American schools, but it is largely a patchwork, withsome students taking one examination and others another. The UnitedStates lacks a national system of achievement testing that wouldallow comparisons of a student'sor school's performance with stu- dents and schools across the nation. Thus,parents who want to know whether their child is learningas much as others, or whether their child's school is teachingas effectively as others, have fewresources on which to draw. The scores reported formany widely used achievement testing programs are, in fact,more likely to mislead parents and the public than to enlighten them.IngiRad of showing how a student's performancecompares with that of his or her contemporaries, these examinations ratetest takers against samples of students who took thetests previously- 2 Introduction 7 sometimes manyyears previously. As a result, Dr. John Cannell noted in 1987, it ispossible forevery state to report, that its students, like the childrenin Garrison Keillor's mythical Lake Wobegon, performabove average. Tests yield- ing such results do littleto help parents, educators, and policymakers evaluate teachingand learning. By contrast, most of thetests presented hereare anchored to standards. Theyrate performance according to agreed-upon criteria ofcompetence, thereby allowingcom- parisons between student andstudent, school and school. Taken for the most part bystudents finishing secondaryedu- cation, these examinationsare also connected to curricula. They assess whether studentshave mastered what they have been given to study,much as Advanced Placement(AP) examinations do in this country.But few students take AP tests: only about 7 percent. Thepercentages taking national examinations in France, Germany,Japan, England and Wales are higher. In 1990,half the students in the relevant age group in France took the baccalaureatexam. National achievement examinationshave a place in the educational life of France,Germany, Japan, England and Wales roughly equivalentto the place the Scholastic Apti- tude Test (sAir) and theAmerican College Testing Program (ACT) have here. Taken bylarge numbers of students, mostly those who wishto go to college, the SAT and ACTare the focus of great attention.Like the national examinations of other countries, theyaffect a student's fate. Howhe or she does matters considerably. But neither the SATnor the ACT assesses what students have learned about subjectslike history. Indeed, both avoid testing for factual knowledgethat a student might have acquired in the classroom. WhileJapanese studentsare selecting the sentence thatcorrectly explains why theUnited States sought toopen trade with Japan, and while French students are writingessays describing European resistance to the Nazis during WorldWar H, American studentstaking the SAT are answeringquestions such as the following: Select the lettered pairthat best expressesa relationship similar to that expressedin the original pair: YAWN:BOREDOM:: (A) dream:sleep (B) anger:madness (C)smile:amusement