Reposted with permission of the American Federation of Teachers
HTTP://www.aft.org
             A Profile of the United States' Education System
                          College-Bound Students
The education system in the United States is built upon a strong tradition
of local control. Historically, the federal government has played a limited
role in areas such as curriculum and assessment, particularly when compared
to countries such as France, Japan, and, since their recent reforms,
England and Wales. States and local districts have shared the bulk of the
responsibility in these areas, and each state has approached these
responsibilities differently. Some states have assumed a significant
leadership role, defining a core curriculum and developing statewide
assessments; others have entrusted districts with these responsibilities.
The result of this highly decentralized system has been wide variation in
curricula and performance expectations across the country. From one U.S.
school to another, students are not necessarily studying the same subjects
and learning the same things. And they are certainly not being held to the
same standards of performance. Some view this diversity as a strength of
the system, others consider it an indicator of the severe inequities that
exist.
Over the last few years, as more attention has been paid to the poor
performance of U.S. students on national and international assessments,
many have looked to the more centralized education systems overseas for
ideas, particularly in the area of standards and curriculum. While few
favor the establishment of a national curriculum, the idea of voluntary
national standards in the core subject areas has received strong public and
professional support, and efforts are under way to make that idea a
reality. Many states are also beginning to assume a greater leadership role
in terms of defining curriculum and performance standards.
In Search of Common Standards
The lack of clear and rigorous standards in U.S. schools is illustrated by
the relative ease with which students pass through the system. As a general
rule, students move from grade to grade without ever having to
systematically demonstrate competency in any of the subject matter.
Students do take numerous standardized tests, administered at both the
state and district levels, but their achievement on these exams does not
usually affect their progress through the system. Only a few states,
including California and New York, administer exams that may influence
university admission and are tied to the curriculum covered in high school;
these exams, however, are all voluntary.
This is not to say that efforts have not been made over the years to set
common standards in U.S. schools. The "Carnegie unit" was created nearly a
century ago to address the wide divergence in college entrance requirements
around the country. In an effort led by the Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching, colleges and universities agreed that 120 class
hours of a particular subject - which at that time implied a certain level
of content and rigor traditionally considered appropriate for college-bound
students - would equal one credit or Carnegie unit, and that no high school
graduate who had not earned a minimum number of credits (14 or 16 units)
would be granted admission.
The invention of the Carnegie unit was important because it set a standard
for courses offered by secondary schools and taken by students. It also
gave post-secondary institutions a way to measure and compare the academic
accomplishments of their applicants.
Though the term is not widely used, Carnegie units remain today the only
form of common standards in U.S. schools. They exist in nearly every high
school across the country in the form of course requirements. But many
educators are beginning to question the reliability of a standard that has
so little to do with results. Although some commercially-produced textbooks
are commonly used in and across states, no real framework exists for what
subject matter ought to be covered within each course. And without any
common performance standards, course grades inevitably must reflect the
standards of a particular teacher, or perhaps a particular school. As a
result, there is no way to tell whether students in different schools are
learning the same things.
College Entrance Standards
The United States has the largest and most diverse post-secondary education
system in the world. There are over 3,600 public and private colleges and
universities (including two-year community colleges) and close to twice as
many (7,000) specialized technical/vocational institutions for students to
choose from. In 1992, 62 percent of high school graduates enrolled in a 2-
or 4-year college or university.
Unlike students in each of the other countries discussed in this report,
American students are not required to take advanced subject-specific exams
in order to apply to college. In fact, there are no common college
admission standards in the United States that are based on student
performance. Of the 3,600 institutions, nearly one-third have no entrance
standards at all, operating instead under "open admissions" policies. Those
colleges and universities that do have selective admissions policies
develop their own selection criteria based largely on some combination of
Carnegie units, course grades, privately developed and administered exams,
and other factors such as extracurricular activities, student-written
essays and interviews. The more prestigious schools tend to set high
standards. But there are also "selective" institutions whose standards are
so low that they accept virtually any applicant.
While there is no single examination that college-bound students must take
in the United States, there are a number of tests that are used by
admissions offices in making their selections. As mentioned above, all such
tests are developed and administered by private organizations. The most
well-known and widely taken exams are the Scholastic Achievement Test
(SAT), developed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in cooperation
with the College Board, and the ACT, run by the American College Testing
Program. Neither of these tests are linked to any particular curriculum
taught in the schools. To the contrary, since there are no common
curriculum standards in the United States and these testmakers are
interested in developing a product that can be widely applied, they have
been forced to develop their assessments free of virtually any curricular
ties.
The SAT has sections on verbal ability and mathematics and is taken by
approximately 43 percent of high school graduates. The ACT is composed of
separate subject area tests in English, mathematics, reading and science
reasoning and is taken by approximately 35 percent of high school
graduates. A vast majority of four-year institutions (approximately 93
percent) use both SAT and ACT scores in the admissions process, although
students generally take only one of these two exams and many institutions
express a preference for one exam over the other. A small percentage of
institutions use either the SAT or ACT exclusively or do not use either
exam.
Though widely used, many have criticized both the SAT and ACT for their
heavy reliance on computer graded, multiple choice questions and their lack
of connection to a school curriculum. The latter is a problem because the
tests do not necessarily measure what students have learned in school. The
College Board and ETS have attempted to respond to the first concern by
revising the SAT to include some non-multiple choice items. Prior to 1994,
however, the test was purely multiple choice.
Advanced Placement Exams
The College Board and ETS also offer two other series of examinations,
Achievement Tests and Advanced Placement (AP) exams, both of which are
considered more curriculum-based and, therefore, more indicative of
academic achievement than the SAT and ACT. Achievement Tests are offered in
English composition, literature, American history, European history, math,
biology, chemistry, physics and six foreign languages. Advanced Placement
exams are given in art history, studio arts, biology, chemistry, computer
science, economics, English language and literature, French language and
literature, German, government and politics, European history, U.S.
history, Latin, math (calculus), music, physics, psychology and Spanish
language and literature. Both sets of exams require greater subject matter
knowledge than the SAT and ACT and involve students in more than multiple
choice responses.
Most colleges and universities accept AP and Achievement Test scores.
Although each admitting institution has its own policy for weighing these
exams in its admissions criteria, students with high scores are generally
considered to have an advantage over other applicants. Some schools even
allow students with high scores to earn advance credit in certain subjects,
a practice that is more common with the AP.
Advanced Placement exams are different from the Achievements in one
important way: There is a specific curriculum that AP teachers are supposed
to follow in preparing students for the exam in each subject. High schools^
that choose to participate in the AP program offer AP courses in some or
all of the subjects mentioned above. The College Board provides
participating schools with course outlines in each of the subjects they
will offer. These outlines provide teachers with a clear framework for the
subject matter that ought to be covered. Teacher training workshops are
also offered by the College Board for an additional cost. In 1993, 48
percent of U.S. high schools offered at least one AP course.
The exams are not a required part of AP courses. In 1993, only 7 percent of
18-year-olds took at least one AP exam, and 4 percent passed.
The tight alignment between the curriculum and exams puts the Advanced
Placement program virtually in a class by itself. None of the other U.S.
assessments mentioned thus far have made that connection, and that is one
of the greatest weaknesses of the assessment system in this country. Of
course, the disconnection between curriculum and assessment is largely a
result of the lack of a common core curriculum. With different curricula
and standards operating in every classroom, assessment developers have^
little to go on. The current efforts to establish national standards in the
core subject areas could help to alleviate this problem.
How Are AP Exams Developed and Graded?
Each year the College Board hires AP high school teachers and college
faculty to work together on developing the exams. A separate committee is
formed in each subject area whose charge is to develop exam questions that
are well aligned with the existing course descriptions. Both the AP courses
and exams are meant to be reflective of college level work. To make sure
that the AP materials are keeping pace with university expectations, the
College Board conducts curriculum studies every few years involving several
hundred universities.
The AP exams consist of both multiple choice and free response sections.
The multiple choice items are all graded by computer. The rest of the
questions, requiring essay writing, problem solving and other more creative
responses, are graded by specially trained high school teachers and college
professors. To ensure the greatest accuracy, each individual exam is
evaluated by four teachers and professors.
AP exams are graded on a scale of one to five. Scores of three to five are
considered passing. In 1993, 64 percent of exams earned passing scores.
Chuck Beams
Fidonet - 1:2608/70
cbeams@future.dreamscape.com
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* UniQWK #5290* A cult of the common man is a cult of mediocrity.
--- Maximus 2.01wb
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