Sizing Up the Spellings Commission

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Need check the real report and see if I can find the Puffer report (1970).

Achievement Test

BACK TO THE BASICS: In Defense of Achievement (and Achievement Tests) in College Admissions
Analysis Favors Subject Tests Over SAT - InsideHigherEd.com
Related article : Local view: It’s time to end affirmative action

The emphasize on Achievement is the emphasize on responsibility... The sense of responsibility to the society is what will make the talented the servant to the society.

What a wonderful article about Achievement Test! A lot of the findings agree with my ideas expressed over the years.

In addition to the article, here's some of my ideas :

1. What entered into the high school GPA includes measurements like efforts, consistency and knowledge of topics. This give a good reason why high school GPA is a good indicator of success.
2. Part of the reason that the achievement test is also a good indicator is that, for most of the students, the achievement can be gained if students put their efforts in studying the topic and finishing homework assignment. The measurement of achievement is, in part, the measure of efforts and hardworking.
3. As noted in the article, the GPA is not free from subjective influences. At this point in time in the United State, this may not be as serious. But as the competition for higher education admission rise, this will become an issue.
4. The switching from talent (read I.Q.) based message to Achievement based message is very important. This is not just for the education but for the society. The message is that you can do it if you put your mind to it and there is no excuse about talent. The emphasize on Achievement is the emphasize on responsibility.
   
5. It is students' responsibility to learn and to study and it is teachers' responsibility to provide needed help and it is parents' responsibility to see assignments get done.
6. With responsibilities in the atmosphere and the abuse of social resource out of the way, we can now provide help to those with truly in need and level the play ground.
7. We don't really know how genetic of race made to the talent. But that is really not the issue. The sense of responsibility to the society is what will make the talented the servant to the society. Talent is to be blessed to serve the society but for personal gain.
   
8. The goal of norm-reference is to make test scores compatible between various question sets. I am not sure it really mean to be used to compare students.
   
9. It is true that small differences in test scores may in fact have little or no effect on students' performance once in college. On the other hand, students will small differences in test scores will be accepted to schools that have virtually no difference in quality. Affirmed to test scores, however, established an objective measurement that students and society can count out the subjective influences such as race, gender, socioeconomic ranks, personal affiliations, grade inflation ... etc.