By Lindsay Sax
Students at certain colleges and universities have potentially one more test after graduation to take. It’s called the Collegiate Learning Assessment Plus (CLA+), a college exit exam.
CLA+ is given through the Council for Aid to Education (CAE), a national nonprofit founded in 1953 and located in New York City.
“The shortcoming of all of those standardized national tests like that, you are making the assumption it is geared toward the learning that happened in your classroom,” said Sheri Barrett, director, Office of Outcomes Assessment.
CAE said the standardized test is designed to measure critical thinking, problem solving, scientific and quantitative reasoning, writing and the ability to critique and make arguments. The post-college exam is used to provide employers with evidence of work readiness skills for applicants, according to the CAE website.
“It’s another set of information that employers can use to review the applicant,” said Robert Keeley, director of assessment services at CAE, in an article on nbcnews.com. “We’re looking to equip students to share their scores more readily than they have in the past.”
Barrett said a standardized test cannot tell how an applicant interacts with people and their depth of ability.
Some people say that the test will address the problem of grade inflation, which some schools may use to award higher grades resulting in attracting and retaining students.
There are 700 institutions both in the United States and internationally that use the test, according to the CAE website. Some schools closer to home include Fort Hays State University, Emporia State University, Pittsburg State University and Wichita State University.
At Emporia State the test is not mandatory, said JoLanna I. Kord, interim assistant provost, Institutional Research & Assessment at Emporia State. It is used to report to the Kansas Board of Regents performance indicator goals.
Chris Roitz, student, believes the exams will have a negative effect on students.
“It’s just another road block that people are going to see while getting an education, and they lose motivation,” said Roitz.
Exit exams are not new, according to Barrett. While she does not think it works for all areas there are some where a standardized test will work.
“I think that it worked best in those fields where the faculty, the department chair had taken the time and the opportunity,” said Barrett. “You can get a sample and they had read through it and mapped their own curriculum to the test to see, does this in fact address the areas of learning that we want from our students?”
Can a national standardized test made for everyone actually tell your personality and abilities?
“No, because I’m not like anyone else,” said Riotz.
Contact Lindsay Sax, copy editor, at lsax@ jccc.edu.