Standardised testing

In the UK, there is no debate about whether or not standardised testing in schools is a good idea or not. Exam boards were introduced starting in 1857, and the first national standardised tests came in 1918 during Lloyd George's Liberal coalition government - the same government that introduced women's suffrage that same year. National testing was considered a progressive policy, in contrast to the US where standardised testing is still considered a largely conservative idea and is much opposed.

The debate in the UK revolves around whether or not the current tests are as rigorous as previous ones. To some degree this is missing the point: the requirement for standardised tests is not that they are rigorous, but that the results are meaningful to consumers of test results.

When I say 'consumers of test results', I mean the people that use the results to choose between students: universities and employers. This is in contrast to the 'producers of test results', which are the schools, local education authorities, whichever Whitehall department has control over schools this week, the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) and its six component examination boards, and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) - soon to be replaced by Ofqual.

This somewhat bewildering array of organisations create, administer and mark the two most important standardised tests: GCSEs and A-levels. Schools and LEAs are judged by these results, but only by the same organisations that produce the tests in the first place. Students are judged by these results as well, but by a group that has no input on the nature of the tests: universities and employers. The unintended consequence of this system is that the organisations responsible for testing create tests more suited for schools than students. This isn't because they are evil or trying to destroy education, it's simply because the schools, not the students, are effectively their customers.

The current system therefor doesn't meet the requirement of standardised testing: to give universities and employers a means to choose usefully between students. Can this be done without creating another closed system, this time with universities and employers as both producers and consumers of test results? Yes, it can, using open source methodology and peer review.