Annotated Bibliography #4 - Are International Tests Worth Anything?

Yong Zhao cited Keith Baker's article Are International Tests Worth Anything? in his response to Robert Campton's documentary 2 Million Minutes. This led me to want to investigate further, so I chose to do my bibliography on Baker's article.

Citation
Baker, K. (2007, October). Are international tests worth anything?. Retrieved from http://216.78.200.159/Documents/RandD/Phi Delta Kappan/International Comparisons - Baker.pdf


Summary
   Baker sets out in this article to prove that international test scores have no direct correlation to national success. He does this by looking at the FIMS scores administered in 1964 and comparing them to current data that measures national success, such as wealth rate, economic growth rate, productivity, quality of life, livability, democracy, and creativity. He states that if there is a correlation between scores and success then this data from countries mostly run now by the students who took these international tests in 1964 should match up to those test results. However, he finds that the United States comes out ahead in 74% of the comparisons instead of being outranked 100% by the other nations who scored higher on the test.
     Baker also looks at another international testing program, PISA. This data showed that nations with an average PISA score (the U.S. included) outperformed nations scoring above or below average. Based off of these data comparisons, Baker concludes that a certain level of education needs to be reached to provide a base for national success, but, once that level is reached, further gains in test scores may actually hinder economic and national success. He states this is due to drawing attention away from other factors that lead to success, like ambition, inquisitiveness, and independence, and focusing to much attention on test scores. It may also take attention away from real educational issues, like lack of support, run-down urban schools, and achievement gaps.


Critical Response
    Overall, I found this article to be very interesting! In a time when higher test scores seem to be the main focus in education on many levels (international, national, state, local), I was shocked to read an article from 2007 with mathematical research and proof that test scores might not be the key and number one indicator to success for our students. The results seemed to reinforce what I have believed to be true about education. While I agree that a certain level of knowledge needs to be acquired and certain skills taught and learned, there seems to be much more to education than can validly be scored on a test. I personally agreed with many of the points that Baker made, such as Einstein's quote, "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination". Many of his other points, like "it turns out that the elementary teachers who have said all along that there is more to education than what is reflected in test scores were right and the “experts” were wrong", were very motivating and, simply put, nice to hear in a time when "experts" seem to be making all of the decisions.
     I would be interested to read other articles, possibly even more current than this one, that address this issue. Is there opposing 'proof' out there that test scores do correlate with national success? This is an issue I am now interested in looking into further.