More discussion on a graduation exam for college students in Florida:
The board is working on the testing provision, which will be voted on in March. But it approved six measures to evaluate the universities, including the number of minority students enrolled at each school and the amount of research dollars attracted.
The idea is to make Florida's 11 universities accountable in much the same way as Florida's public schools, which are punished or rewarded depending on student performance on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT.
If the testing component is approved, officials said, the state would become the first in the nation to implement a testing program in higher education...
The members said they want to make sure students are learning, not just graduating. "This issue is not going to go away," said board member Steve Uhlfelder. "It is difficult. But I believe learning assessments need to stay in the discussion."
I foresee just as much controversy over this as for high school exams, if not more. The exam itself does not sound rigorous:
...a test in writing and critical thinking would be given at the end of a student's second year and administered again at the end of the fourth year. In some cases, separate tests in a student's particular field of study, such as chemistry or history, would be given when a student enrolls and again in the fourth year.
However, the same arguments will appear about "teaching to the tests," different "styles of learning," and "multiple intelligences," with the added complication that now the testmakers are going up against college professors, who are known to be a bit more stubborn than their K-12 counterparts.
Oh, look. Already, there's an op-ed published about this, entitled, "Enough Already." You get three guesses as to how the writer feels about this proposed college test, and the first two don't count.
Posted by kswygert at January 25, 2004 01:53 PM