While assessing the learning outcomes of students after teaching them, teachers always employ various techniques to be certain that the intended knowledge, skills, and morals are imparted to the learners ( Everson, 2013) . The assessment and evaluation of the students’ understanding in relation to the lesson or course objectives can be either at the end of the lesson, at the end of the course or the end of the program. The performance of the learner after the assessments showcase the level of understanding of the taught concepts by the learner. Furthermore, the performance acts as a gauge for entry to the next level. For instance, if a learner or student perform above average in the test or course exams, they are allowed to proceed to the next learning level or class. There is various type of exams or tests used from the primary level to the tertiary level to assess the students' potentials.
The assessment can either be a direct or indirect assessment. Direct assessment involves the evaluation of the taught course contents through standardized tests, certificate exams, and locally developed tests (Ellrich, 2014). The rubric used in undertaking the direct tests may be through written exams, lab works, comprehensive tests, exam questions, projects, and capstone assignments which are marked and graded to award the learner his marks. The indirect assessments method involves putting the learners in groups, surveys or self-evaluations texts which are not graded. These assessment tools target to assess learning outcomes like the critical thinking of the learner, oral and written communication skills, the information literacy skills of the learner and even the mastery of scientific and technological fluency ( Rambo-Hernandez & Warne, 2015 ). Some of the tests used in assessing learner who qualifies for college education include SAT or ACT tests.
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SAT and ACT tests were established in the 1930s for the Ivy League Schools to assess the student's Intelligence level and background to take them to a prestigious school (Balf, 2014). The system was then embraced in other universities, colleges, and school to select the best and ‘Intelligent’ students to further their studies. The learners who score high grades are advantaged to proceed while those with low grades are eliminated from the education through self-humiliation and psychological torcher (Balf, 2014). Surprisingly, the contents which are examined at the high school level do not relate to the education taught in the colleges. Furthermore, some of the subjects that are examined are not relevant to the students’ future careers hence the student may end up neglecting the tests due to lack of interests in the examined content.
SAT or ACT tests are administered at the end of the high school education to determine the learners' academic performance which forms part of the criteria for joining college ( Everson, 2013) . Many students always put more efforts in their academics in high school for the zeal to perform well in order to get a chance to advance their academic careers at the college level. Students with high scores above the college cut-off grades or points are allowed to join college and undertake their courses of choice. The students who perform in the tests are believed to be the intelligent or rather suitable candidates for university or college education. However, the biggest question or controversy pertaining to this assessment tool regards to their validity since they do not fully measure learners' intelligence.
According to Hiss a former dean of students’ admission at Bates College, the entry grades which students join colleges with do not reflect on their performance on the college level (Sedlacek, 2017). Many students who join colleges with high grades do not maintain their performance index. On the other hand, those with minimum grades tend to perform significantly high. The difference between the two groups thus rendering the high school ACT or SAT tests invalid. The performance of the learners at college and university level is therefore determined by the student's intellectual curiosity, self-discipline, and academic commitment (Sedlacek, 2017). Hiss observation, therefore, infers that the students' academic strength and intelligence cannot be assessed through the tests since the human mind is complex and multidimensional. Hence, the tools used in assessing the learner's performance should be not only focused on the learners' intelligence but rather the morals, skills and interpersonal attributes.
The SAT and ACT standardized tests, therefore, do not reflect the learners’ academic potential since they only examine the learners content mastery ability rather than the interpersonal skills and cognitive ability (Sedlacek, 2017). These possess a great challenge to the learners when they proceed with their educational career in universities and colleges. Therefore, colleges and universities institutions should not rely on the learners’ high school scores or grades in the college admission process since they do not reflect the learners’ full potential ( Everson, 2013) . The college and university education should also be taught to all the learners despite the high school performance since education is vital for the learners’ growth in the career field.
When the learners enter the job market, the implicated low scores in their academic certificates always deny them hiring chances while some of them are skilled for the jobs. Many individuals make it in the job sector and are tagged with high-performance culture yet they allegedly failed in the SAT tests. This implies the SAT exams do not show the learners’ full potential since someone may be useful in the aspects which were not set in the standardized SAT tests at the high school career. To ensure all the learners exploit their academic potentials, the colleges and universities should not rely on the SAT grades but rather admit all the high school cohorts to advance their career. The tests grades are not a guarantee of whether a student will perform well in college or university education.
References
Balf, T. (2014). The story behind the SAT overhaul. The New York Times. Retrieved on 18 November 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/magazine/the-story-behind-the-sat-overhaul.html
Ellrich, L. M. (2014). Are SAT Scores a Strong Predictor of Student Success? A Study of Education Majors, Admission Variables and the Impact of Leadership Development (Thesses & Dissertations). University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME, USA.
Everson, H. T. (2013). Innovation and change in the SAT: A design framework for future college admission tests. In Rethinking the SAT (pp. 97-114). Routledge.
Rambo-Hernandez, K. E., & Warne, R. T. (2015). Measuring the outliers: An introduction to out-of-level testing with high-achieving students. Teaching Exceptional Children , 47 (4), 199-207.
Sedlacek, W. (2017). Measuring noncognitive variables: Improving admissions, success and retention for underrepresented students . Stylus Publishing, LLC.
