Testing in America: A Supportive Environment.

Abstract

Despite the clamor of critics, stan dardized tests enjoy widespread support in U.S. public opinion. Eighty one percent of a national sample of par ents surveyed by the Gallup Organization in 1979 indicated that they thought stan dardized tests were useful or some what Only 17% thought tests were too Other polls have shown the same positive attitude toward testing.1 Such lay support for a controversial technology does not indicate that the practice is well understood or, in fact, even useful. It does show, however, that the public believes that testing is useful, legitimate, and even desirable. People in all walks of life, educators among them, share this belief. Why has this public support for testing developed? How did our culture come to accept and encourage the use of these yardsticks to measure the growth and achievement of its young? I shall argue that historical experience has encouraged Americans to welcome the kinds of judg ments made by educational tests. This ex perience has in turn created a tradition of acceptance that upholds current practices in testing even in the absence of full agree ment on the benefits of the tests them selves. Testing, I believe, responds to three long-standing features of U.S. society: 1) a compelling business interest in making the most efficient use of human resources; 2) a desire, in keeping with an egalitarian tradition, to reward talent regardless of social origins; and 3) a recognized need for national (and public) standards to moderate and limit the autonomy of our local institutions. Let's take a look at each of these and see how they have affected Americans' receptiveness to educational testing. Rational Management

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