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What is learning? Is it the ability to recall facts or to solve an equation? How can you measure it? For college bound students, the Advanced Placement (AP) exam has attempted to address these questions since 1955 and offers students an opportunity to earn college credit while attending high school.
A major portion of AP exams includes multiple choice questions along with a free response section. As a student, I disliked multiple choice questions because I would often second guess myself. What if the "obvious" answer is a trap? In contrast, the free response section allowed me to address the question more naturally, just as a professional in that subject area would when tackling a problem.
The latest Education Life section (to be published tomorrow) of The New York Times has reported that the College Board is now reconsidering how to measure student learning, using less than half of the number of multiple choice questions. Currently, AP exams scores are derived from 60% multiple choice and 40% free response questions. The first revised AP exams will be available Fall 2012.
I am delighted that the College Board will be rolling out these changes because the current format has led many teachers to "teach to the test," not to be confused with student learning. As pointed out in The New York Times article, MIT Dean of Admissions Stuart Schmill, says:
...the biology department found that even some of the students who scored 5's did not have the problem-solving skills needed for higher-level courses.
Exactly!
What will these new exams look like?
College Board officials say the new labs should help students learn how to frame scientific questions and assemble data, and the exam will measure how well they can apply those skills. When the new test is unveiled in 2013, biology students will need, for the first time, to use calculators, just as A.P. chemistry and physics students do. The board plans to cut the number of multiple-choice questions nearly in half on the new test, to 55. It will add five questions based on math calculations, and it will more than double the number of free-response questions, to nine.
What do you think? Do these revised exams offer a better way to measure learning? Would you recommend your son or daughter to take them while in high school?
"When the new test is unveiled in 2013, biology students will need, for the first time, to use calculators, just as A.P. chemistry and physics students do."
WTF? How the use of calculators for physics students is a good thing?
The calculator canard is one of my pet peeves. The use of a calculator does not less thinking. More important is knowing what operations to apply, when and why. In other words, the logic of the problem.
I would love to see a test which consisted entirely of story problems whose answer consists of: "Please write the formulae you would use to solve this case, along with explanations." A calculator would be little help in such a test. Of course it would be a bitch to grade.
I took a stats course where calculators were forbidden. The attrition rate was unbelievable. It was not possible to pass the class without spending every spare moment trying to memorize charts and formulas. It was bullshit.
Knowing what you need to do is more important than being able to do it off of the top of your head.
Continuing my last post,
Memory is incredibly faulty. Why would you WANT students to try to rely solely on it, especially for a field where it is rare that you will have to be working without a safety net calculator and charts and reference materials?