Evening star., 1927-09-04
COLLEGE AIMS AND RESULTS
TOBE STUDIED BY COUNCIL
Research Program Covering Three Years
Expected to Develop Exact Data on
Effects of Higher Education.

nave served as a rough index, later
to be supplemented by pains;aking
observation of officer and non commits
stoned officer material.
But the committee seeks something
better than this in personality test
for college aspirants. Mr. Robertson
himself will direct the work along this
line, and he has a rich background of
sympathetic observation of college
students. both as a student himself
and as a teacher.
OF course" Mr.. Robertson said,
there is one great limit to any test
of this sort. Psychologists never yet
have devised q mechanical means to
test the individual will, which otter is
more vital factor than the intelli
gence."
But these personality tests. as de-
vlsed by the committee. will represent
something far broader than intelli-
gence tests. The intent is to provide
a rough measure, at least. of the indi
vidual as a whole-his energy. his
ina gination. his subtlety. his powers
of induction. his status in respect to
different sorts of society groupings.
his physique. his resistance. A prac-
tical test, of course, must be simple
and it must be applicable by the ma
jority of group of trained individuals
so that each will get approximately
the same results.
Problem for Science.
Everybody. of course, applies per-
sonality tests to everybody else. Smith
and Brown both test Jones-their
standard being the indetinable effect
of the Jones organism on the Smith
and Brown organisms. After this test
Smith thinks Jones is a sCoundrel and
d depraved ignorant creature who is
not to be trusted out of sight. Brown
thinks Jones is good timber to sue
Geed Calvin Coolidge. Is 1t possible to
work out some method by which both
Smith and Brown. providing they are
properly trained. can arrive at APP
proXimately the same estimate of
Jones?
The Education Council committee
faces lis proposition in the real
scientific spirit. There is no false en-
tnusiasm. They have no preconcelved
theories. II way can be found a
great advantage will have been at
tained.
The other objectives are more tan
gible. AS for the first. every college
probably keeps a personal record card
of each of its students. The informa-
ton listed on these ranges all the way
from such simple facts of personal
history as age and religious prefer
ence to mass of quite intimate de-
tails. This research. which will be un-
der the direction of President L. B.
Hopkins of Wabash College. will seek
to determine just what facts the fac
ulty needs to know about the student
and to devise a card which will record
all these facts. Two cards may be
used. the first to include items cover
ing the students school life from the
seventh grade on. with academic rec
ords, outside activities and personal
data. 1t will be a check list useful in
educational administration at all lev
els. The terms will be defined. the
use of each item will be described and
a summary of the experimental evil
dence of the value of each will be given.
On the second card will appear those
items of record of immediate utility in
the case of the individual college stu
dent
The second objective-actuala achieve
ment tests-will be pursued under di- |
rection of Dean Herbert E. Hawkes. of |
Columbia University. These will be !
quite different from intelligence tests I
more in the nature of college mid |
years or, finals to determine just how I
much a student knows about given |
subject. But there is badly felt need |
for q standard set which can be ap-
piled at different stages of the course |
i'll all colleges. Such standard tests |
already exist in modern languages, !
high school mathematics, American !
history. first and second year Latin, |
physics and chemistry. The commit |
tee viii prepare them for economics, |
government, ancient history. Euro |
pean history, solid geometry and trig- |