MIT: Standardized Tests Don't Build the Right Skills

MIT neuroscientists found that schools with the highest gains on standardized test scores do not produce comparable gains in fluid intelligence such as information processing and problem solving. Instead, they show gains in crystalized intelligence: The knowledge and procedures that students are taught in the classroom.

Researchers reported that even though educators are working hard to raise test scores, the numbers are not accompanied by an increase in complex thinking. They found in Massachusetts, one of the highest performing states, “the greatest gains on test scores do not produce similar gains in ‘fluid intelligence’ – the ability to analyze abstract problems and think logically.”

John Gabrieli, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences and a member of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, explains that the study was designed to examine measures beyond standardized tests that can predict long term success. However, the researchers discovered that there are very measures of higher level cognitive abilities that relate to educational outcomes.

The study also noted that schools accounted for about 24 percent of the variation in standardized test scores but less than 3 percent of the variation in fluid intelligence. The researchers do not want their results to be used to criticize schools but rather to encourage schools to support programs that focus on improving executive function, reasoning, and analytical thinking all of which build fluid intelligence.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/even-when-test-scores-go-up-some-cognitive-abilities-dont-1211.html