Word: slack
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Until 1978, ETS did not acknowledge or refer to two studies conducted in 1961 and 1965 that attributed gains of 40 to 85 points to special test preparation. ETS's Jackson says in his formal written response to the Slack-Porter Educational Review article that the studies "examined score gains by students involved in lengthy educational programs that go well beyond what is ordinarily described by the term 'coaching.'" But in reviewing the mountain of research conducted on the issue, Slack and Porter found that one of the programs analyzed was only 17 minutes longer than those Jackson calls "short...
...counters that the studies in question didn't use proper control groups. Slack and Porter argue that they compensated for this in their analysis, adding that ETS itself quotes studies lacking concurrent controls when the findings suit its ends. Not so, responds Cameron, who accuses his critics of allowing "social aims" to shape their research and makes passing reference to the fact that Slack was a classmate of Ralph Nadar's at Princeton in the early 1950s, "and maybe that means something...
...most recent FTC report on the SAT, compiled by Joan Gerrity of the agency's Boston office and released last April, concurs with the Slack-Porter conclusion that "ETS and the College Board have not fully disclosed the potential benefits of coaching," Gerrity says. The report also raises questions about "how useful schools should find a test that appears not to be very standardized" and "how much high school education has become oriented toward a test that may not be valid for a lot of students," she adds. Yet admissions officers do not question ETS's practices, describing the company...
...There is a certain vindictiveness about the Slack-Porter argument," says Dean K. Whitla, director of the Office of Instructional Research and Evaluation and the longest standing member of Harvard's admissions committee. Whitla, who has enjoyed periodic research support from ETS, made a statement in 1962 that Slack and Porter now take pleasure in quoting: "If this thesis [that SAT scores can be increased by an intensive tutoring program] were to be proved true, its proof would challenge the validity and essential purposes for which the test was constructed." Today, Whitla says, Harvard is continuing its standard practice...
...Slack and Porter endorse what Whitla describes as a growing reliance on Achievement Tests at Harvard and other schools. But they warn that too much emphasis on these exams--which test knowledge of individual academic subjects on terms dictated by ETS and the College Board if teachers felt compelled to prepare students specifically for the achievements. The answer for Slack and Porter is one that admissions offices and ETS would consider a step backwards: abandon the SAT, use other standardized exams to a limited extent, and place even more stock in high school grades and recommendations...