Post by Moses on Jun 15, 2005 2:14:18 GMT -5
Test results linked to living standards
Polly Curtis, education correspondent
Tuesday June 14, 2005
American standardised assessment tests, a version of which is being considered as a template for UK university entrance exams, are easier to pass if you are wealthy and live in a middle-class neighbourhood, according to new research.
How well pupils do in the standardised tests is directly related to where they live and the level of poverty, according to the study, which was published in the US journal Psychological Science.
The aptitude-based tests are central to the education reforms of the US president, George Bush, in an act he championed last year called No Child Left Behind.
The tests have also featured in the debate about testing pupils who are applying to university in the UK. A string of top universities have already introduced aptitude-based tests for their most competitive courses and one exam board has launched a national version it hopes will be taken up by all universities.
The study used data from more than 1,000 Virginia schools, ranging from large city, small urban, and rural areas with student populations across poverty levels.
It found that pupils in middle-class areas were more likely to get better tuition for the tests, both in and out of school, than their peers in poorer neighbourhoods.
It also confirmed that the quality of teaching impacts directly on how well the child does. "As the poverty level of a school's population grows, fewer highly qualified teachers are in the classroom," the report says. "Additionally, students in large cities and rural areas have less access to qualified instructors compared to small urban and suburban areas."
The researchers concluded that in a school with a population of 400, a one point increase in the percentage of highly qualified teachers would most likely lead to between nine and 20 more children passing the tests.
"On average, in high-poverty schools, 20% of classes are taught by non-highly qualified personnel, and 40% of the students fail the writing test," said the study's author, Peter Tuerk, from the department of psychology at the University of Virginia.
"With No Child Left Behind regulations, students in many states are finding themselves in the difficult predicament of having to improve their academic performance without the benefit of adequate educational resources."
The debate over whether universities should introduce their own tests to select the best students has raged ever since admissions tutors started complaining that too many students were getting the top grades in A-level and it was proving harder to select the top candidates.
In April the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (Ucles) and the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) unveiled an Academic Reasoning and Thinking Skills test (Arts) as a candidate for a single test for all university candidates to sit.
A spokesman for Ucles said that their new test was significantly different to the American version and had been specifically designed to identify skills which universities require form their students.
Polly Curtis, education correspondent
Tuesday June 14, 2005
American standardised assessment tests, a version of which is being considered as a template for UK university entrance exams, are easier to pass if you are wealthy and live in a middle-class neighbourhood, according to new research.
How well pupils do in the standardised tests is directly related to where they live and the level of poverty, according to the study, which was published in the US journal Psychological Science.
The aptitude-based tests are central to the education reforms of the US president, George Bush, in an act he championed last year called No Child Left Behind.
The tests have also featured in the debate about testing pupils who are applying to university in the UK. A string of top universities have already introduced aptitude-based tests for their most competitive courses and one exam board has launched a national version it hopes will be taken up by all universities.
The study used data from more than 1,000 Virginia schools, ranging from large city, small urban, and rural areas with student populations across poverty levels.
It found that pupils in middle-class areas were more likely to get better tuition for the tests, both in and out of school, than their peers in poorer neighbourhoods.
It also confirmed that the quality of teaching impacts directly on how well the child does. "As the poverty level of a school's population grows, fewer highly qualified teachers are in the classroom," the report says. "Additionally, students in large cities and rural areas have less access to qualified instructors compared to small urban and suburban areas."
The researchers concluded that in a school with a population of 400, a one point increase in the percentage of highly qualified teachers would most likely lead to between nine and 20 more children passing the tests.
"On average, in high-poverty schools, 20% of classes are taught by non-highly qualified personnel, and 40% of the students fail the writing test," said the study's author, Peter Tuerk, from the department of psychology at the University of Virginia.
"With No Child Left Behind regulations, students in many states are finding themselves in the difficult predicament of having to improve their academic performance without the benefit of adequate educational resources."
The debate over whether universities should introduce their own tests to select the best students has raged ever since admissions tutors started complaining that too many students were getting the top grades in A-level and it was proving harder to select the top candidates.
In April the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (Ucles) and the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) unveiled an Academic Reasoning and Thinking Skills test (Arts) as a candidate for a single test for all university candidates to sit.
A spokesman for Ucles said that their new test was significantly different to the American version and had been specifically designed to identify skills which universities require form their students.