Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-02
STANDARDDEGREES
PURPOSE OF STUDY
New Test System May Have
Revolutionary Effect on
Higher Education.

ing with a grant of 100000 from the
Rockefeller Foundation.
DR.. John Henry MacCracken, former
president Of Lafayette University,
will start work Monday as associate
director of the council, with general su-
pervision Of this project-the ultimate
object of which is to make a students
progress through college dependent en-
tirely on actual achievements in learn
ing rather than in spending so much
time In study. Eventually the same
system may be applied to high schools,
to bring about a tremendous saving in
time, expense and labor.
This is essentially a project of the
colleges themselves, the American
council, which Is a cooperative organi-
cation Of the colleges and educational
associations, acting as their agent, and
when once the system Is established it
is certain of very widespread accept
lance and to effect the careers Of hun
dreds Of thousands Of students.
VIII Standardize Work.
The work will consist of constructing
O graduated series of standardized
achievement tests for every subject
commonly studied in colleges, designed
to measure the actual attainment of a
student at any stage in the progress of
his studies and to give a college degree
the same value as q reward Tor &C
complishment, regardless of where it is
obtained.
At present, it is explained by DR.. c.
r. Mann, director of the council,
students progress is measured in units
of time which have very little relation
to actual mastery of q subject. Thus
q boy or girl spends in college so many
semesters, or half years, each consist
ing of so many courses and each course
consisting of so many hours. II the
student passes these courses each
semester with q prescribed minimum
grade, at the end of three or four
years he or she receives q bachelors
degree in certification Of the COM
pleted course. The degree is granted
regardless of actual accomplishment. in
quirement is reached. There is no
actual differentiation between bright
students and dull students. Each gets
the same thing, with the same valua-
ton. The fundamental basis is hours
of credit" Freshman Latin, for exam
pie. now counts six semester hours for
everybody. Under the new system 1t
COuIiG TWICE do Tile way
Of credits, based on some other unit
than hours, for a good student as for a
Door student.
The plan of the council Is to con-
Ntruct an examination In college Latin,
With q graduated increase In difficulty
From beginning to end, scores on which
Ndll be correlated rather precisely with
degrees Of actual mastery of 'he sub
pct. After all, DR.. Mann points out,
n IF Lot in,
o to teach Latin and not provide
means for earning certificates of hours
o credit which can later be cashed
b, like so many bank notes, at the
college ONCE for a piece Of sheepSkin.
With such an examination the student
Who knew little Latin-perhaps bare
enough to get by''-would get a low
$uore and would be credited with what
Aver number of points this score rep
6aSented toward degree. His only
Yay to get more points out Of 1t would
be to get higher mark. The good
nfudent would get q high mark, cor
helated with that much greater progress
Ia mastering the subject, and would
l@eceive correspondingly more credits.
Accomplishment 10 Count.
The same system would be applied
20 English, modern languages, nathe-
natics and the natural and social
sciences. In the end the degree would
represent a specific degree OF ac-
eompliShment in learning rather than a
SPECIFIC number Of hours spent in
Under the present system each in
Structor In each college makes up and
marks his own examinations. One man
may give an easy test and mark it
leniently. The man teaching the CORE
spending course in another college may
give very difficult test and be merci-
lessly severe in his marks. The same
differences may obtain in practically all
the courses in the two colleges. Yet
students in both receive the same thing
at the end-a bachelors degree. Thus
as certificate of accomplishment the
degree has practically no meaning.
Under the proposed system the students
in both colleges would get exactly the
same MARYLAND exactly the same
credit toward degree-on exactly the
same test graded in exactly the same
way Thus degrees from any college
using the system would mean exactly
the same rs degrees from any other
college.
It is planned to construct tests in
the marking Of which the subjective
latitude OF any teacher cannot have
any effect. The questions are such as
can be answered with word or a SYM
Dol. Lie d1lSWCA ID GAuA1CA AA6ik Va
wrong There is no room for personal
Judgment of the maker. n Latin test
could be scored just as we'll by girl
stenographer in the professors office
who didn't know the difference between
Latin and Chinese as by the professor
himself On the old type OF examina-
Aion, experiments have shown, the
kcorer is influenced by the students
facility in English, spelling, handwrit-
ing neatness. point-of-view-and a
host Of other factors that have nothing
whatsoever to do with mastery OF the
subject.
Examinations Graduated.
Under this system credits would be
awarded not according to scores In
themselves, but-an important DIS
misunderstanding TO scores definitely
correlated with degrees OF achievement
by laborious mathematical analysis
Each graduated step is to indicate more
of the territory covered by suolec'
and not necessarily the intensity witn
which any part Of the territory ha'
been covered.
But the labor Of preparing sucf
standardized tests Is enormous. 1t In
wolves preparing hundreds OF thouSandi
of questions, each constructed VIII
skilled painstaking 50 that there Is m
possible ambiguity. Then the examlna
tions containing these questions mus
be given to thousands Of students ant
the relation OF each question to the &C
conplishment of each student correlated
nv an involved mathematical process
Then there will be arrangements, ols
carding, etc, until eventually test
achieved which will measure person
achievement in the subject as accuratel
as distance can be measured with
foot rule, as accurately at George WASH
ington as at Harvard, and with Tn