FREEDOM YOUTH ACADEMY, INC.
1600 MORRIS ROAD, SE
WASHINGTON, DC 20020
(202) 889-1682 OR (202) 584-3012 FAX: (202) 610-1519 OR (202) 584-3012   

Perspectives on Standardized Tests,
Education, and the Freedom Youth Academy

By Dr. Henry J. Gaskins

It is an honor and a privilege to speak to you concerning my perspectives on standardized tests, education and the Freedom Youth Academy. I will also provide you with some information about assisting your children and students with their future educational development.

Standardized tests are deemed important in this society and they prevail at every level of educational progression. They also have symbolic significance as the barometer of the educational accomplishments of the students at their schools. Standardized tests mean that the test has been tried out on a large population representative of the people who will subsequently be using the test. This large representative sample, or standard group, establishes a base line against which any score may be compared and interpreted from year to year. The average score on the test is the average score obtained by the standard reference group. The scores are all interpreted along a standard scale which always means the same thing.

The first College Boards were administered in 1901. The exams were all essay formats in specific subject areas. Modern standardized testing had its start in 1904 when a test was constructed to identify slow learners so that they could be placed in remedial classes. Today, standardized tests are the doorway to education at each stage of the students' development.

There is, for example, the CIRCUS for children moving from preschool into first grade; the STEP to measure achievement in grade school and high school; the SCAT to measure academic ability; the RCT to measure competency as a requirement for a high school diploma; the PSAT/NMSQT to qualify for a National Merit Scholarship; and the SAT for college entrance. There is the MCAT for admission to medical school; for law school, the LSAT; for business school, the GMAT; to qualify for a teacher's certificate, the NTE; and a multitude of other IQ tests for job applicants.

Many believe that standardized tests are not an objective way to measure a student's achievement in school. They also believe that there are too many tests which are inaccurate, inconsistent and biased against minority, female and low income students.

Moreover, critics have charged that standardized tests measure only a narrow spectrum of abilities; that the tests by their very nature discourage creative and imaginative thinking; that the results of the tests are far too significant in effecting the life chances of young people; that the emphasis in a multiple-choice test is wrongly on the "right answer" and on simplicity instead of thoughtful judgements; that the tests favor the advantage over the disadvantaged while claiming to be neutral; and that the tests are inherently biased against those who are unfamiliar with the language and concepts of the majority culture. In short, the critics believe that the tests corrupt education, subjugate millions of students to their mechanistic requirements, and limit access to educational opportunity.

The first offshoot of the IQ test was the SAT. The SAT was developed in 1926 as a general multiple choice test which was not specifically linked to any particular subject. It was described by its creators, the Educational Testing Service, as an aptitude test, meaning, that it supposedly measured a person's natural ability rather than learned knowledge. Educational Testing Officials called it an "impartial and objective measure of a student's ability." They said that it can predict how well - or how poorly -students will perform in college.

Moreover, for nearly 68 years, the College Board, which sponsors the SAT once claimed that special preparation was largely an exercise in futility. They maintained that the magnitudes of the increase varied slightly, but they were always small and appeared to be independent of the level of ability of the students being coached. The College Board further proclaimed that the "abilities measured by the SAT developed over a student's entire academic life, therefore, coaching can do little or nothing to raise the student's scores."

The worst effect of the SAT is the least visible. It can't be measured in money or numbers. It's the loss of self-esteem that students experience when they get low scores. Low scores become self-fulfilling prophecies. Students internalize them and believe they can't compete so they don't even bother to apply to highly selective institutions. According to one survey, over 60 percent of students lower their college expectations once they receive their college admissions scores. These students don't apply to their first-choice college, or perhaps decide not to go to college at all - based solely on the SAT's assessment of their abilities.

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Low scoring students rarely consider that their scores may be imprecise or wrong. They feel trapped by an SAT score that supposedly sums up forever their scholastic aptitude. One educator has stated that the United States is the only industrialized nation that puts emphasis on a test "that tries assiduously to be curriculum free." Other critics question the accuracy of its alleged predictability, the use and misuse of test scores, and the limitation of their validity.

To sustain the illusion that IQ tests are not arbitrary, or biased, the testers depend on mystification; that is, they classify items such as vocabulary questions and analogies, which call for the skills of formal logic, as tests of "reasoning abilities." By classifying these designated surrogates of intelligence, the test experts distort the distinction between the skills of formal logic, which are acquired in school, and the human power of logical analysis, which develops in the totality of life situations.

In this way, they create the impression that children from groups whose education is inferior, and who lack the exposure to the requisite skills or the designated surrogates of intelligence, are children who also lack the ability to reason. This country's first major critic of mental measurement was Dr. W.E.B. DuBois. From 1910 to 1934, as editor of the Crisis, Dr. DuBois published critiques almost monthly on the testing of African Americans in this NAACP journal.

Recalling the early days of testing, Dr. DuBois wrote of the accelerated use of the new technique of psychological tests, which were quickly adjusted so as to put African Americans absolutely beyond the possibility of civilization. DuBois also said that the first thing which brought him to his senses in all the racial discussion was the continuous change in the proofs and arguments advance. He referred to this tactic as the "stratagem of shifting grounds." The stratagem of shifting grounds is the process of introducing an adjusted claim when a prior one had been exposed.

The practice made a great impression on Dr. DuBois and it continues today. For example, the IQ test is a device that manipulates the distinction between formal logic and human reasoning ability. This allows the old claim of racial and class intelligence differentials to be "validated" in a more sophisticated way in the twentieth century than was feasible in earlier times.

For many African American students, the SAT is a major obstacle to their future academic and career success.
The standard rationale for using the SAT is to predict scholastic performance. However, females score much lower on the test even though they earn higher grades than males in both high school and college. Many minorities succeed in college despite the SAT's prediction of failure. More than a dozen studies prove preparation courses can increase scores 100 points or more.

The New York Public Interest Research Group found that high school grades are three times better at predicting college performance. Yet forecasting freshman grades is just what the SAT was designed to do, according to its manufacturers, the Educational Testing Services.

Clearly, then, the SAT does not accurately predict what it claims to accomplish. Parents spend over 100 million dollars to prepare their children for the SAT. Each year test scores help determine which students will win over 125 million dollars in financial aid and merit scholarships on the basis of test scores alone. There are commercial SAT preparation courses costing up to $800 dollars or more. During the summer there are SAT prep camps for students whose parents can afford to pay about $1500 dollars.

For many competitive colleges, the SAT is the most important rationale to justify why some students are admitted and others are not. If their score isn't high enough, these colleges won't look at the application or consider the high school record, even though their grades are probably a far better indicator of academic ability.

Mental measurement is not a science, it has been suggested that it is a pseudoscience, because science develops, and a pseudoscience remains static. The criticisms and complaints about standardized testing made by Dr. DuBois in 1910 are still the concern of many educators today.
In October 1993, the stratagem of shifting grounds evolved with the administration of a newly revised college admission test, the SAT One that includes a name change from the Scholastic Aptitude Test to the Scholastic Assessment Test.

Justified by making several cosmetic and superficial changes in the original SAT format, the College Board has also introduced a test preparation program called TestSkills. Developed by the experts who created the test, TestSkills contains 24 easy-to-follow lessons that focus on developing skills and increasing confidence.

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The College Board is now encouraging minority, disadvantaged, and Spanish speaking students to use the TestSkills preparation course to succeed on the new SAT One college admission test. Notwithstanding the fact that for nearly 68 years, the College Board and others have claimed that special preparation for these tests was largely an exercise in futility because the SAT's were not susceptible to coaching or special preparation.

Therefore, the reconciliation of mental measurement and aptitude, with test preparation and formal logic is presently intrinsic in the philosophy of the College Board and the Educational Testing Service; and is now the most recent example of the stratagem of shifting grounds. So the Scholastic Aptitude Test, which was in existence for seventy years, has now become the Scholastic Assessment Test during the past two years. However, the two exams are still referred to as the SAT, irrespective of the changes made to the format.

Since African American students will be confronted with standardized tests, there are techniques, strategies, and other test-taking sophistications that will substantially increase their scores, so it is imperative that they acquire these skills through test preparation and formal logic programs that are especially designed for this purpose.

Even more importantly, the improvement of these skills will enable the student to achieve higher grade-point-averages in both high school and college. After the students have taken the test, they must not internalize their SAT score. High or low it is an unscientific measure or assessment of who they are. A high score doesn't make a genius and a low score doesn't mean that they are unqualified to pursue higher education.

A high IQ seems less important than the "I will" or the "I can." We stress the point that effort and concentration are the foundation for success for African American students.

The belief in effort as the key to success engages parent, student, teacher, and the community in a shared endeavor to maximize the student's potential and self-esteem.

To personally address this situation, my wife and I decided to open our home sixteen years ago to assist the community youth with their educational, social, and recreational endeavors. The objective was to promote education, develop character, and replace destructive behavior, such as drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, and school dropout rate with positive behavior in the lives of the children and youth. The students named the endeavor, the Freedom Youth Academy, because freedom to them meant the ability to take responsibility for their lives.

Since that time, over 1500 students have been encouraged and inspired to excel in their academic pursuits.

For example, it has been estimated that it will take minority and disadvantaged students at least 45 years to attain the average score of 1000 on the SAT, which would amount to an average increase of five points per year for each student. Within eight weeks, students at the Freedom Youth Academy have consistently demonstrated an increase in scores from 50 to 350 points during that brief timeframe.

Recently, I provided individualized SAT instructions once a week to Ruben Bertrand Boumtje Boumtje, who is an 11th grade exchange student from French Cameroon in Africa. He also happens to be about seven-feet tall, and plans to play basketball while attending Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington D.C. This was perhaps my most difficult challenge because Ruben's first language was French, and English was perhaps his forth best language. Unfortunately for him, the SAT is only given in English. After working with Ruben for approximately 10 sessions, he took the SAT several months ago for the first time and scored 950 points which now qualifies him to attend college and play basketball on a scholarship at a number of colleges and universities in the United States. Ruben plans to study cardiology in school.

As an after-school and Saturday enrichment program, the Freedom Youth Academy features a wide variety of courses, activities, and instructions that provide academic reinforcement and enrichment. Students are provided with the opportunity to excel in the society through a proven curriculum designed to enhance their verbal, math and reasoning abilities. Critical thinking skills, test-taking techniques, problem solving, and decision making strategies are also included in the program.

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The Freedom Youth Academy has received national honors from two presidents of the United States. Each year, the Points of Light Foundation designates the Academy as their model of success to discuss the "Role of Volunteerism in the United States" with educators and dignitaries who represent over 25 countries. The Academy has been ranked among the top schools in the nation by the Department of Education.

My wife and I have been the recipients of over 75 national, congressional, and local awards for providing students with the skills, knowledge, and abilities to excel in this society.

The Academy is committed toward making education the number one goal for the future success of the children. Students are encouraged to pursue the American dream of a life that is replete with hope, self-respect, responsibility, personal fulfillment, and academic achievement.

The key ingredient to the success of our program is our belief that the students can learn and that we are capable of improving their performance on standardized test. We are also aware that students learn at different rates and in different ways. Therefore, the traditional classroom is not conducive to maximizing every student's learning potential. The benefits of our program apply not only to underachievers but to gifted students who wish to accelerate and to average students who need to be motivated and to learn more effective study habits.

Since the primary objective of education is to develop and increase levels of competence, I have written a book, entitled "Striving for Academic Excellence," which is a scholastic assessment test training tool designed to address the ethnic, social, cultural, and diverse learning styles of the African American students. The publication focuses on blending the students' self-esteem, pride, and a tradition of excellent accomplishment with formal logic, knowledge and information that is intended to result in the improvement of the cognitive abilities of the students.

My successful approach for increasing standardized test scores is to improve the student's skills in test-taking, verbal abilities, analytical reading, creative thinking, problem solving, and decision making. Students are presented with an opportunity to excel in this society through a proven curriculum with innovative teaching methods and techniques.

The future does not hold the promise or success for many of our students. The odds for academic success are mounting against our students at an alarming rate. According to a study by New York University, one large group of typical fifth graders revealed that the average amount of time spent reading outside of school was four minutes a day or less for 50 percent of the students: Two minutes a day or less for 30 percent of the students: And 10 percent of the students read nothing at all.

The same group of children watched an average of 130 minutes of T.V. per day. One does not have to be a genius to determine the results if one child is watching cartoons and violence on T.V., and the other one is working word problems, asking questions, reading, and involved in an academic enrichment program.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Japanese educational system has demonstrated a high degree of achievement and success in education. Japanese IQ's are estimated to be among the highest in the world, and illiteracy is almost unknown: 90 percent of students graduate from high school. There are no complicated tracking of slow and gifted students in separate classes: All students are expected to acquire the same information on the same schedule.

There are at least three common factors that I have found in the Japanese Educational System that are, and have been related to my personal approach in assisting students at the Freedom Youth Academy in striving for academic excellence.

Number one: Early training and motivation: Parents are their children's first and most influential teachers. What parents do in the home and what teachers do in the classroom will determine the difference between success and failure.

Number two: Parents should develop an intense involvement with the child's schooling by supervision homework, communicating with teachers, and reinforcing good study habits and ethical values.

And number three: After-school programs. Many Japanese students attend after-school and Saturday programs called "Juku" and "Yobiko" that provide remedial help, extra lessons and exam preparation.

Instruction is on an individualized basis. In Japan, the exact number of these schools is not known. Largely because there are so many of them, and their numbers are increasing too rapidly.

Parents, educators, professionals, and concerned others must play a more active role in assuring that all students receive a quality education. Parents can improve their children's chances for success by emphasizing the importance of education, hard work, and responsibility, and by encouraging their children's friendships with peers who have similar values. The ideals that students, their parents, and their peers hold are important aspects in predicting academic success.

In closing, we all must realize that education is the key to success and the only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future, and a good education is the power that our children will need to succeed in life.

"Striving for Academic Excellence" is not only the motto of our enrichment program at the Freedom Youth Academy, it is also a way of life, the pride of accomplishment, a commitment and dedication to knowledge, and a sincere desire to grow intellectually at every stage of the ladder to success.

We all have an obligation to help each other. The community must become the extended family it once was and provide the mentors, role-models and support to guide and sustain those in the next generation.

Our history has shown that we can rely only on ourselves, so we must build our own safety net for our children. The future of our children depends on it and our love for each other demands it!

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