为了强预测力无偏见性的考试

For Tests that are Predictively Powerful and without Social Prejudice

标准化考试成绩一直被当作通向美国大学的"黄金罗盘"。但研究表明,SAT的试题挑选逻辑存在系统性偏差,所有词汇题都是有利于白人的题目。家庭收入和父母受教育程度与SAT考试分数相关,但与高中成绩无关。实际上,高中成绩比标准化考试分数能更好地预测大学成绩,标准化考试分数对大学成绩的预测度充其量只有大约21%,而且带有歧视性质,将社会淘汰粉饰为学术淘汰。一些用于评估申请者创造性和解决实际问题能力的所谓"非认知考试"的新测试工具,也胜过以往的标准化考试,在学生大学成绩和保留率方面比SAT有更强的预测力,并且考试分数没有性别或种族差距。在过去20年,有将近1/3的四年制大学,在旧的入学制度中部分甚至全面渗透了"可免考试入学"改革,招收到了种族及社会经济地位更加多样、学术能力更强的学生。抛弃SAT或ACT指日可待。

Standardized testing has been using as a Golden Compass to higher education in US. But research offers shocking evidence of systematic bias in the SAT’s logic of question selection, all verbal questions on the SAT have been White advantage questions. Family income and parents’education correlate with test scores but do not correlate with grades earned in high school. In fact, high school grades have always done a better job in predicting college grades than test scores. The scientific prowess of SAT was never found to be very great, predicting at best about 21% of the variance in college grades. Plus, these tests are discriminatory, disguising social selection as academic selectivity. Those so-called“non-cognitive”tests which were used to assess applicants’creative and practical problem solving ability, also performed statistically better than the SAT in predicting grades and college retention, without any gender or racial test score gaps. In the last two decades, nearly a third of our four-year-degree-granting institutions have gone“test-optional”breaking in part or whole with the Golden Compass camp, and got more racial and SES diverse and academically stronger students. The tipping point to push past the SAT/ACT is within sight.