Two basic premises are underpinning
standardized testing. The first is the notion of standardized testing as a measurement of
content knowledge and critical thinking ability. The purpose of any standardized test is to
measure what a person knows and what a person should know. Standardized tests, though often
advertised as a measure of cumulative knowledge, are a snapshot of what a person can recall at
the exact time of the assessment. Given standardized assessments are gateways to an entrance or
closing off of a career path, then long term behavior will not be significantly altered by a
passing or failing score on a singular assessment. A person needs to recall knowledge to
correctly answer multiple-choice questions and respond to constructed response questions in a
manner conforming to the standard of the evaluation of the assessing institution. In either
case, the need to change behavior is not necessary. The only criterion for earning a passing
score is to mimic the responses of what the organization is assessing. Short term memory
suffices, and long term change is unnecessary.
The second premise in which
there is scientific evidence to support is when a standardized assessment is altered, the
instructional practices of the field are changed to present material in a way that conforms to
the assessment practice. Some in the field of education refer to this phenomenon as 'teaching to
the test.' However, all instructional practice contains an element of teaching material in the
context of how the content will be assessed. This is standard pedagogical practice, and there is
nothing inherently wrong with presenting content in preparation for the assessment. The purpose
of the evaluation is to determine how well an individual has learned the material, can apply the
content, and then construct a critical analysis of situations where the content is essential to
the outcome. In most fields, people learn from the example of the person providing the
instruction. If revising a standardized assessment also means changing instructional practices
and modeling a new behavior, then it is conceivable long term behavior is also
altered.
In reference to the MCAT, it is a standardized assessment. The
principles of construction and measurement are not different from other similar standardized
tests. Long term behavior is more affected by instructional practice than assessment
methodology. If a person believes in the first premise, then the answer is no. If a person
thinks the change in the assessment affects the instructional practice of the educator, then
yes.
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