The Use of Educational Measurements in High School Work
Abstract
Ever since schools have been organized, the achievements of pupils have been measured. However, the construction of standardized objective tests for this purpose is a comparatively recent development. The idea is very simple, and no doubt was in the minds of many before the fruit was produced. The germ of many of these ideas that are found in our modern tests may be traced to a plan used by an English schoolmaster. He called his instrument a "scale book", and although crude and undeveloped in its nature, it served its master very well. Samples of work were collected and arranged according to merit, and used in the school where this idea originated. This plan is somewhat similar to the composition and handwriting scales in vogue today.The beginning of standardized tests in this country may be escribed to Dr. J. M. Rice, around the year 1895. His first invest- igation was in the field of spelling. He constructed two tests, the first a list of fifty words, of which he received the returns of more than sixteen thousand children; the second test was in sentence form. These tests were supervised and rated under Dr. Rice's personal supervision. The conclusions drawn from the results startled the educators of the day. He stated that pupils who had spent forty minutes a day for eight years in the study of spelling did not possess any greater ability to spell than those who had devoted ten minutes to the subject. Many teachers replied that it was impossible to measure the results of teaching by a test in spelling which occupied but few minutes.
Subject Area
Educational tests & measurements|Higher education|Educational psychology
Recommended Citation
Brock, Sr. Alta Maria Teresa H, "The Use of Educational Measurements in High School Work" (1924). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI31097150.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI31097150
