DOCUMENT RESUME TE 000 502 ED 022 748 By- Purves, Alan C. DESIGNING TIC BOARDS NEWLITERARRE ACHIEVEMENT TEST. Pub Date 68 Teachers of Note-6p.; Adapted from an address givenat the Annual Conventionof the National Council of English (Hilu. Hawaii. Nov.1967). Office. Box 592. Princeton. NewJersey Available from-College EntranceExamination Board. Publications Order 08540 (Subscription rate. $2.00 per year.Single copy. S0.50). Journal Cit -College Board Review; n67p16-20 Spring 1968 EDRS Price W -S025 HC Not Availablefrom EDRS. ENGLISH INSTRUCTION. Descriptors-CRITICAL READING. CRITICALTHINKING. *EDUCATIONAL TESTING. CRITICISM. LITERARY DISCRIMINATION.LITERARY GENRES. *LITERATURE. LII'ARY ANALYSIS. LITERARY TESTS. TEST CONSTRUCTION. LITERATURE APPRECIATION. MULTIPLECHOICE TESTS. *OBJECTIVE TESTING PROBLEMS Identifiers-*College Board Achievement Tests This article descriDes theproblems that the CollegeEntrance Examination Board's Committee of Review for theExaminations in Englishencountered in creating afair. achievement test which would meetfour objectives--to objective. hour-long literature that reading. his measure thebreadth of a student's reading.his understanding of response toliterature, and his critical slob.Sample multiple-choice questions onLouise Bogan's poem 'Medusa." ilustrate(1) the kinds of questionschosen by the Committee. (2) the eight skis that the questions aredesigned to test. (3) the reasonsfor choosing these types of questions.and (4) the patternof questioning which moves from testing sharpness of observation todepth of understanding.(S) U.S. 011111011111 Of MIEN. EDUCATION & MOAN OfIKE Of EDUCATION DOS DOCUMENT HAS NEN IMPIODUCED EXACTLY AS INCEIVED FROM liff PERSON 01 01611111111011 011611111;...7., ItPOINTS Of VIEW 01 OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY IRPIESEks OFFICIAL OfFICE OF EDUCATION POSITION 01 POLICY. College Board Review SPRING 1968, NO. 67 News of the College Board, 3 Letters, 3 How can we make testing more relevant?, 5 by William W. Turnbull Upward Bound at Bowdoin: Who's teaching whom?, 11 by Daniel Levine and Herbert R. Courten Jr. Designing the Board's new literature Achievement Test, 16 by Man C. Purves Do most students need 'time out' between school and college?, 21 by Howell F. Nomer New role for the student aid officer: 'resourceful uncle', 24 by John W. Harris Quotes, 28 College Board Review is published quarterly (fall, winter, spring, and summer) by the College Entrance Examination Board, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, New York 10027 Address editorial contributions and inquiries to Robert L Brenner, Senior Editor. Subscription rates: 32 per year; 3 years, $5; 5 years, $7; single copy, 3.50. Address subscription orders and orders for other College Board publications to College Entrance Examination Board, Publications Order Office, Box 592 Princeton, New Jersey 08540. Copyright 0 1968 by College Entrance Examination Board. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 56-46771. Printed in the United States of America. .a-- -it., to' '4 ---Zr- 1--:.".:,....7" 1 Illustrations: Our Spring cover is by a .,11, .... - "t, '..f 1_1 ' g ,C4"... 4.1-011- '-' Ian Reid. Vincent Malta created 4!- 4 14' t ....t.. .44- V ... *A ? c,. _. the frontispiece and illustrated the . -. .4 ....' r' : 0". , s articles beginning on pages 5 and 11. 1 . , 4:-.PrC i- .. f .- t 11;4 ",'. Stanley Wyatt illustrated those .!!... sP 2 q . ...-, s. -.7:1 ... N -. :-4' P beginning on pages 16, 21, and 24. al % .:- e aw. The cartron on page 14 is oft, -- a- -' .,.. .10 40 !i- - , - f ' Henry Martin's. ,...? lo - ; . i ). ' f - --: -- 1 - 01.8. II- r 4 0, s i ..., , in.! a. ; r a '.. 3 . ; N.1 4'.; 4 -. Id. mr Stra.4. 1 . fbr-, r BY ALAN C. PURYES "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL BY MICROFICHE ONLY HAS N GR D BY TO ERIC 0 ORGANIZATIONS OPERATING UNDER AGREEKNTS WITH THE U. S. OFFICE OF EDUCATION. FURTHER REPRODUCTION OUTSIDE THE ERIC SYSTEM REQUIRES PERMISSION OF IHE COPYRIGHT OWNER." Designing the Board'snewliterature Achievement7est To construct a nonessay literature test that measures both sharpness lems will be of use to the creator of of observation and depth of understanding, yet is still fair to classroom tests. The first objective, to measure the students of varied backgrounds, is less easy than you may have guessed. breadth of a student's reading, seems easiest,particularlywith multiple- This May, the College Board offered nary experiments had shown the com- choice questions. What could be sim- for the first time a one-hour, multiple- bined two-hour test to be neither pler than ; Duncan is Macbeth's (A) choice Achievement Test in English psychometrically nor administratively son; (B) brother; (c) king; (n) mur- literature. In effect, the new test is an feasible, but that the objective portions derer; (E) conqueror? Such a ques- outgrowth of the recommendations of of the literature section seemed usable tion can separate those who remember the Committee of Review for the Ex- as a one-hour test. With the approval the play from those who do not. It is aminations in English, appointed by of the Board's trustees, the first ad- unimpeachable. And when taken by it- Board President Pearson in 1964 to ministrations of the new test were self, it is unfair. review the Board tests in English in scheduled for this May and for twice Macbeth is the most-taught work in the light of the findings of the Com- next year. American high schoolsabout 70 per- mission on English and the testing In this article, one of the test's de- cent of them include it in their curric- needs for admissions and placement. signers details the "gripping saga" of ulums. But what about the other 30 A major recommendation of this com- how the literature committee* of the percent? When you go beyond Silas mittee was that the Board's English Committee on Examinations created Marner, Romeo and Juliet, Huckle- examinations should reflect the tripar- the new test: what objectives were con- berry Finn, and similar pedagogical tite naturelanguage, literature, and sidered, how they were evaluated, what bestsellers, you will find that not more compositionof most English curricu- kinds of questions were finally selected, than about 10 percent of the schools lums today. and why. assign any single title. Particular short Work on the test began in October stories and lyric poems are used by 1965, when Board members author- The literature committee was origi- even fewei schools. To give every stu- ized the Board's Committee on Exam- nally charged by the College Board's dent a fair shake, a test of literary inations to develop an experimental Committee of Review for the Examina- breadth should include at least 100 two-hour test of both English compo- tions in English with creating a test to questions, and even then the examiner sition and literature. The Committee meet four objectives: 1) to measure gains less an index of achievement reported in March 1967 that prelim& the breadth of a student's reading; 2) than of mere acquaintance. to measure his understanding in some The second objective, "to measure depth of works he has studied and understanding in depth" of works read; 3) to measure his response to studied by the student, poses a differ- literature, jointly affective and eval- ent sort of problem. Such a measure uative; and 4) to measure his ability requires an essay answer, because a set to use whatever critical skill he has on of multiple-choice questions cannot be texts unfamiliar to him. made up for every book a student These four objectives include most might have read, and a universal series of those listed in statements on second- of such questions is absurd. Essay ary school literature teaching. Omitted questions do exist in the Advanced Man C. Purves, a are the attitudinal and the broad, hu- former member of the test development manistic objectives which are long- division of Educational Testing Service, *Committee members were Laurence A. term goals rather than immediate Michel Jr., State University of New York at is now an associate professor of English rewards. Each of the four presents cer- Buffalo, chairman; Arthur A. MacConochie, at the University of Illinois. His article Norfolk Academy, Norfolk, Va.; Martin L is slightly adapted from his address be- tain measurement problems, particu- Parry, John Burroughs School, St. Louis, fore the members of Pi Lambda Theta larly within the hour-long format of Mo.; R. Christine Royer, Barnard College; College Board Achievement Tests. My William T. Stafford, Purdue University; Nell at the annual convention of the National H. Thomas, Greenville High School, Miss.; Council of Teachers of English, held last hope is that this gripping saga of the and Graham C. Wilson. San Jose State Col- November in Honolulu. committee's struggle with these prob. lege. IBlacemenl English Examination, but en they run into practical snags that ould take on immense proportions in really large-scale examination. The first snag is that of differing in- terpretations. If, in all honesty, some benighted candidate wrotean interpre- tation of Macbeth which made Duncan a symbol of France, Macbeth of Ho Chi Minh, and Macduff of Henry Cabot Lodge, most responsible graders would color him dense. But it might be the interpretation he was taught. The second snag is, once again, that of va- riety. Few Advanced Placement stu- dents choose Leon Uris as their author of literary merit; he isn't assigned in Advanced Placement classes. But his work is often assigned in other classes, and a student cannot be blamed for literature. If students aren't moved by middle ground on which John O'Hara writing about the theme of man and books and have not developed -r and John Updike reside is full of society as exemplified, for instance, in for them, then English teachers have quicksands.