Measuring Postsecondary Achievement: Lessons from Large-Scale Assessments in the K-12 Sector

Interest in using large-scale standardized assessments in the postsecondary sector has been growing rapidly in recent years. However, our experience is still limited, and there is a serious dearth of research investigating the characteristics and effects of testing in the postsecondary sector. We have far more extensive experience with large-scale testing in the K-12 sector, particularly in the USA. In this paper, I discuss a number of important issues that have arisen in K-12 testing and explore their implications for testing in the postsecondary sector. These include mistaking the part for the whole, overstating comparability, adding functions to extant tests without sufficient justification or validation, Campbell’s Law, and unwarranted causal inference. All of these issues are relevant to assessment in the postsecondary sector, and some are more severe in that sector than in K-12 education. I end with recommendations for productive and appropriate uses of assessments in this sector.