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    Scholar Examines College Testing

    By BILL SCHLOTTER

    Rebecca Zwick is a professor of education in the Gervitz Graduate School of Education.
    There are many camps in the debate over the use of standardized tests like the SAT, formerly called the Scholastic Assessment Test, in college admissions.
    "There are people who think you can use test scores for anything," said Rebecca Zwick, a professor of education in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education. "They regard the tests as kind of an all-purpose educational indicator. And then there are people who hate every test they encounter, just on principle."
    Others feel the tests discriminate against women and underrepresented minorities, who often score lower than other student groups. Zwick examines these positions in a just-published book, "Fair Game?: The Use of Standardized Admissions Tests in Higher Education" (RoutledgeFalmer, 2002), that covers the fairness, history, and design of the tests.
    In her book, Zwick takes a position between the absolutes, arguing that standardized test scores are useful information in assessing scholastic skills and predicting university achievement, but are not the whole picture. And lower test scores by minority and female students, she feels, are more correctly attributed to poorer academic preparation in secondary schools than to any innate bias in the tests.
    "My belief is that, for the most part, lower test scores by minorities and girls reflect differences in educational background," Zwick said. "We know that black and Latino kids are less likely to have gone to resource-rich schools. We also know that girls are less likely to take advanced math and science classes in high school than boys. It is these differences that are primarily responsible for the difference in scores."
    Over-reliance on test scores in admissions decisions can perpetuate these disadvantages in course preparation. For that reason, Zwick favors an admission policy of comprehensive review where other factors--family background, socio-economic status, achievements in other areas--are considered along with test scores and grades.
    "I like the idea of taking into account a lot of different factors, not merely traditional achievement measures," Zwick said. "I think it will take a while to perfect the system, but I think the principle is a good one."
    Nonetheless, even though standardized tests are flawed and incomplete, they do have value, Zwick said. "We use imperfect and incomplete measurements all the time," she said. "Cholesterol level, for example, doesn't summarize us very well as human beings and doesn't even do a very good job of summarizing our overall health. But we still find it useful. And the measurements done in weather prediction aren't perfect, but we find them useful as well."
    Zwick's research focused on the six major entrance exams used for undergraduate and graduate admissions to universities: the SAT, ACT, GRE, MCAT, LSAT, and GMAT.