BLOOMINGTON, Ind., Aug. 23 (UPI) -- Using college admission and placement exams to measure high school student achievement can produce misleading and inappropriate results, a U.S. report says.
A report by the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University found several problems in using exams such as the ACT or SAT in determining overall high school student performance, a university release said Monday.
"These tests were developed as college admission and placement tests, and they're excellent in that regard -- they have no peers," said independent educational consultant Richard J. Noeth, lead author of the report. "But these tests are traditionally used for students going to college. So it's a subset of the high school population".
Three states -- Illinois, Maine, and Michigan -- are using ACT or SAT scores in assessing a school's Adequate Yearly Progress, the measure under the federal No Child Left Behind law that determines if a school is meeting achievement goals for its students, the report says.
In 2008 a commission studying uses of the ACT and SAT labeled such utilization "test misuse," David J. Rutkowski, one of the report authors, said. UPI
