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Achievement tests—multiple-choice exams that attempt to measure acquired knowledge—have come to play an especially prominent role. They are used to sift and sort people, to evaluate schools, and to assess the performance of entire nations.1 The No Child Left Behind Act requires that public schools administer achievement tests and that the test results influence local school policy.  \nAchievement tests were created in the mid-twentieth century. Their validity in predicting success in outcomes that matter is not well established. Achievement tests were developed as a way to measure “general knowledge” that would be useful inside and outside of the classroom. Their developers claimed to have designed pencil-and-paper tests that would predict success in the labor market, in education, and in many other aspects of life. Because achievement tests have been validated by testing experts, most people assume that the tests accomplish these goals. However, achievement tests are typically validated in a circular fashion using IQ tests and grades, and not in terms of their ability to predict important life outcomes. Some have recognized this circularity and have argued that achievement tests miss important skills. There is scant evidence on what skills these tests miss.  \nThis book evaluates the predictive power of achievement tests for life outcomes by examining one widely used achievement test, the General Educational Development test (GED) . The GED test is based on the first modern achievement test. The test is a sevenand-a-half hour exam that claims to measure the knowledge acquired in completing highschool. It embodies the logic of achievement tests. The GED allows high school dropouts to certify high school equivalency to employers and colleges. Currently, the GED program  \n1The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) evaluates student performance in math, science, and reading across countries, and its results attract a lot of media attention and influence policy. Scores from the year 2000 PISA test led Germany to reevaluate its educational system and introduce a variety of reforms (Grek, 2009) .  \nChapter 1—Heckman and Kautz—2  \nproduces roughly 12% of all highschool credentials issued in the United States every year.2  \nOn the surface, the GED exam achieves its goal. As measured by scores on a variety of other achievement tests, GED recipients are as smart as high school graduates who do not attend college.3 But passing a test does not, by itself, prove anything. How do GED recipients compare to high school graduates in terms of meaningful outcomes?  \nOn outcomes that matter, as a group, GED recipients are not equivalent to high school graduates. High school graduates outperform GED recipients in terms of their earnings, employment, wages, labor market participation, self-reported health, and college completion. Graduates are less likely to use alcohol, commit crime, or go on welfare.  \nOn average, GED recipients perform somewhat better than other dropouts on most outcomes. GED recipients, however, are smarter than other dropouts even before earning their GEDs. After accounting for their greater cognitive ability, as a group, GED recipients are equivalent to other dropouts on almost all outcomes. High school graduates who obtain their credentials through seat time and hard work outperform both GED recipientsand uncertified dropouts.4  \nThe GED might be a signal that indicates the greater cognitive ability of most recipients compared to dropouts. However, we establish that the GED certificate provides little signaling value in the market. GED recipients earn the same wages before and after they certify.  \nOur evaluation of the GED provides strong evidence about the predictive power of achievement tests for outcomes that matter. Cognitive ability—as measured by ","cbCaic7rU9UqoWQW","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaic7rU9UqoWQW","pdf",1046218,71,"English","# 1.1 Introduction\n## Achievement tests in modern societies\n## The GED as a case study\n## Cognitive ability versus character skills","[{\"question\":\"What role do achievement tests play in American life and education policy?\",\"answer\":\"Achievement tests are used to sift and sort people, evaluate schools, and assess the performance of entire nations, and policies like No Child Left Behind require their administration and use their results to influence local school policy.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the GED test claim to measure, and how is it used?\",\"answer\":\"The GED is a seven-and-a-half-hour exam designed to certify high-school equivalency by measuring knowledge acquired in completing high school, allowing high school dropouts to qualify with employers and colleges.\"},{\"question\":\"Why do GED recipients differ from high school graduates on outcomes that matter?\",\"answer\":\"GED recipients are not equivalent to high school graduates on earnings, employment, wages, health, and college completion; the chapter argues achievement tests capture cognitive ability but miss character skills like conscientiousness, perseverance, sociability, and curiosity.\"}]","Achievement Tests and the Role of Character in American Life - Chapter 1 - Introduction | PDF",179]