Personality Characteristics and the Nature of Standardized Test Score Interventions

While standardized tests (STs) intend to measure student achievement, the success of the test preparation industry calls the claim into question. The goal of test preparation is simple: for a price, provide students with content superseding techniques (CSTs) that neglect the difficult content to raise ST scores. Purpose: The success of the standardized test industry indicates that high ST scores may simply reflect a personality amenable to memorization of CSTs, instead of reflecting student achievement or aptitude. This study intends to determine whether students are able to achieve higher STS with content-based or CST-based methods, and the personality traits that are associated with STS increases. The study design is a pre-post test design with three groups: a content-based group, a CST-based group, and a control group, which participated in neither intervention. N = 173 participants were undergraduates in the teacher education program at the University of Houston, took equivalent pre- and post-tests consisting of PPR items from released exams, and completed two personality measures (the NEO-PI-R and the TACO inventory). Results: There was a statistically significant difference at the p < 0.10 level, set a priori, in score change for the three intervention groups: F (2, 124) = 2.84, p = 0.06. The actual difference in mean score change between the content-based intervention (0.11) and technique-based intervention (0.68) was relatively large. The effect size of the gain, calculated using Cohen’s d, was 0.34, a medium effect size. Individuals are able to achieve significant STS increases without necessarily understanding the content a ST intends to assess. Eliminating STs, or developing alternative performance measures, could rectify flaws with the current evaluation system and improve learning and teaching of content.