The Truth About Standardized Tests: Education Expert Warns of Corporate Greed and Unnecessary Expenses

2024-02-14 15:58:28

Published14. February 2024, 4:58 p.m

Education expert warns: “Private companies just want to make money with the tests”

A certificate is no longer enough today; companies often require an additional test. This is totally unnecessary and does not serve young people, says an education expert.

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Private test providers: That’s what it’s all regarding

• Economiesuisse calls for comparable assessments in schools throughout Switzerland.

• The solution should be standardized tests, if necessary also from external parties.

• This is a really bad idea, says an education expert.

Economiesuisse demands that Swiss schools should make their student grades comparable to standardized tests. But is that even realistic in federally organized Switzerland? No, says education expert Christoph Kohler when asked.

It’s all regarding money

In recent years, a big business has developed around tests such as Basic Check, Multicheck and Signal Box, says Kohler: “Some private and state providers want to make as much money as possible with the tests.” The young people had a completely different goal: they just wanted to find a job. The majority of the tests are neither coordinated with Curriculum 21 nor with the educational regulations of the professions. It is also problematic that individual professional associations also support the tests and proactively demand them from young people.

“Unreasonably expensive testing procedures”

Now the young people or their parents would have to spend money on “unreasonably expensive test procedures” whose validity is extremely questionable. Because the tests are just a snapshot, they do not allow any conclusions to be drawn regarding the increasingly important soft skills. “The results only ever represent a small part of a person and are therefore hardly meaningful,” says Kohler. “If a 15-year-old applies for three different apprenticeships, he often has to take three different tests just to get the chance to get into a selection process.” This doesn’t serve anyone except the test providers.

This is what the cantons of Aargau, Solothurn and the two Basels do

The cantons of Aargau, Basel-Land, Basel-Stadt and Solothurn have introduced the “Checks” performance test. These show the skills of the students according to the same criteria for everyone. Training companies should be able to see the learning level of their students at a glance. The results can be compared with the school requirement profiles of the apprenticeships of the Swiss trade association.

Tests also cause follow-up costs

In the end, the tests were paid for by the parents, who quickly spent hundreds of francs on them, says Kohler. If the young people do not do well in the tests, tutoring is often required, which is even more expensive. And all of this only because private providers want to assert their market economy interests and get as many professional associations as possible to recommend their own tests, says Kohler.

Basic check, multicheck or signal box: Have you ever done such a standardized test? Then get in touch with us.

“This is unrealistic and unnecessary”

Economiesuisse is setting the wrong focus here, says Kohler. He believes it is illusory to create a test that is meaningful for all of the approximately 240 professions in Switzerland. “That is unrealistic and unnecessary,” said Kohler. In addition, the idea has not been thought through: If there is a national test, there would also have to be national, centralized and completely uniform qualification procedures (final apprenticeship examinations). And ultimately, Economiesuisse would have to consistently examine the comparability and standardization of the high school diploma and thus every educational course in the entire sector, said Kohler.

Tests should be free

The acceptance of Basic and Multicheck among apprenticeship providers would probably not be so high if they represented “a type of manipulation,” says Philippe Wampfler, lecturer in didactics at the University of Zurich. “But good HR departments can evaluate apprentices in the same way they can evaluate applicants who apply for regular positions.” There is no need for standardized tests there. Schools shouldn’t create new tests, says Wampfler, that’s not their job. “Such a test would be a huge bureaucratic undertaking because it would require the harmonization of all curricula and timetables.” In addition, it is not the parents who should finance the tests, but the state, says Wampfler.

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