It’s been another busy month in test preparation and higher education! Below are some of the news articles that got the NTPA members talking. We hope you’ll join the conversation in the comments.
A Test for the Test Makers (Education Next):
“This state of affairs follows years of complaints that the exams favor the affluent. And, in fact, both of the notoriously secretive testing companies face significant problems, including some not widely understood. Reports of their demise, however, may be premature.”
Taking the SAT with the Breakout Expert from Operation Varsity Blues (Educational Endeavors):
“I find that the entire formatting of the Writing Test requires getting used to, from questions that have no actual question (just choices) to questions that ask users to do a really specific random thing. This is one of the reasons that preparation for these tests is crucial in order to maximize your performance. “
Can College Predictive Models Survive the Pandemic? (EdSurge):
“As we develop new predictive models and update the existing ones with data collected in the last year, we will need to analyze its effects and decide how heavily to weigh that data when trying to predict what comes next.”
The Endless Sensation of Application Inflation (The Chronicle of Higher Education):
“But what do such metrics really tell us? What, if anything, does the annual OMG-ing over these statistics add to up to?”
Bring back standardized tests — for fairness (The Hill):
“With the elimination of standardized tests, admissions policies have become more subjective and less transparent — in short, less fair.”
“Clearly the effect on the applicant pool was fantastic — really, really exciting. But how well were we able to identify academic talent and measure academic preparation? How well are students going to do once they enroll at Emory? That is unknown.”
From admissions to teaching to grading, AI is infiltrating higher education (Hechinger Report):
“Baylor, Boston and Wake Forest universities are among those that have used the Canadian company Kira Talent, which offers a review system that can score an applicant’s ‘personality traits and soft skills’ based on a recorded, AI-reviewed video the student submits. A company presentation shows students being scored on a five-point scale in areas such as openness, motivation, agreeableness and ‘neuroticism.'”