[00:03.57]1995

[00:06.80]The standardized educational or psychological tests

[00:10.22]that are widely used to aid in selecting, classifying,

[00:13.86]assigning, or promoting students, employees,

[00:17.09]and military personnel have been the target

[00:20.12]of recent attacks in books, magazines, the daily press,

[00:24.24]and even in Congress.

[00:26.57](1)

[00:29.80]critics divert attention form the fault that lies

[00:32.52]with ill-informed or incompetent users.>

[00:35.74]The tests themselves are merely tools,

[00:38.57]with characteristics that can be measured

[00:40.79]with reasonable precision under specified conditions.

[00:44.62]Whether the results will be valuable, meaningless,

[00:47.45]or even misleading depends partly upon the tool itself

[00:51.18]but largely upon the user.

[00:53.80]All informed predictions of future performance

[00:56.22]are based upon some knowledge of relevant past performance:

[01:00.15]school grades, research productivity, sales records,

[01:03.38]or whatever is appropriate.

[01:05.39](2)

[01:07.62]by later performance depends upon the amount,

[01:10.34]reliability, and appropriateness of the information used

[01:14.77]and on the skill and wisdom

[01:16.75]with which it is always interpreted.>

[01:18.76]Anyone who keeps careful score knows

[01:21.08]that the information available is always incomplete

[01:24.11]and that the predictions are always subject to error.

[01:28.06]Standardized tests should be considered in this context.

[01:31.99]They provide a quick, objective method

[01:34.16]of getting some kinds of information

[01:36.17]about what a person learned,

[01:38.20]the skills he has developed,

[01:40.01]or the kind of person he is.

[01:42.53]The information so obtained has, qualitatively,

[01:45.84]the same advantages and shortcomings

[01:48.06]as other kinds of information.

[01:50.47](3)

[01:53.49]or both in a particular situation depends,

[01:56.52]therefore, upon the evidence

[01:59.04]from experience concerning comparative validity

[02:01.86]and upon such factors as cost and availability.>

[02:06.10](4)

[02:08.62]when the qualities to be measured

[02:10.12]can be most precisely defined

[02:12.43]and least effectively when what is to be messured

[02:15.15]or predicted cannot be well defined.>

[02:18.27]Properly used,

[02:19.07]they provide a rapid means of getting comparable information

[02:22.50]about many people. Sometimes they identify students

[02:26.13]whose high potential has not been previously recognized,

[02:30.05]but there are many things they do not do.

[02:32.68](5)

[02:34.70]for gross social inequality,

[02:37.32]and thus do not tell

[02:38.39]how able an underprivileged youngster

[02:40.61]might have been had he grown up

[02:42.62]under more favorable circumstances.>