| Chapter 1: | Introduction: The Importance of External Examinations in Education |
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They characterize tests as being ‘academic’ and divorced from daily life. They accuse tests of being biased toward high achievers, leaving out all others. In sum, they argue that standardized selection tests do a disservice to public education. Their recommendation might be to have developing nations jettison selection tests altogether. This view fails to recognize the necessity of selection. With compulsory education comes greater participation in higher education. Even where attendance rates approach 80%, such as in Finland and Korea, selection must occur. Educational opportunity is not shaped like a rectangle but like a pyramid. If ‘elite’ refers to those able to enter selective training, then the education system in every nation has elite characteristics. The purposes of selection may vary, but selection for leadership is universal among those purposes. The question, therefore, is not whether a system selects a few to proceed, since all nations must select; rather, the question is how that selection is made.
Certain selection techniques are said to be ‘better’ than others. Essay questions and oral examinations are said to be superior to multiple-choice questions on the grounds that there is more opportunity for creative feedback, more ‘data points’ for observation, and more subtle means to demonstrate one’s competence. When divorced from the context of their application, however, the discussion of the superiority of one testing technique over another is spurious. Both oral examinations and essay questions are more subject to subjective judgement because both are more difficult to standardize. Standardization—the ability of the test designer to create test-taking circumstances that are as nearly identical as possible—is an essential characteristic of any selection examination considered fair. Oral examinations leave open the possibility of bribery and corruption. Both oral examinations and essay questions are more labor intensive and hence both are considerably more costly—and cost does count: The ideal test design should not come at the expense of what is economically and administratively feasible.
Three considerations help determine the choice of appropriate selection techniques: the level of available resources, the logistical challenges for achieving test security, and the level of desired public accountability (e.g., whether questions are to be made public).