Romberg and Wilson (1992) studied six of the most commonly used standardized tests to determine the match between the test items and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' (NCTM's) Curriculum and Evaluation Standards (1989). The chart below displays the percentage of the items on the mathematics section of each test that match the NCTM content, processes, and levels of response. This chart suggests that, to varying degrees, all of these tests emphasize basic skills, such as computation and numbers and number relations, and provide limited coverage of more complex skills, such as probability or statistics, problem solving, geometry, and reasoning. While these tests are described as "basic skills" tests, problems arise when they are used as the primary accountability measure.
Content, Process and Level of Items in
Six Commonly Used Standardized Tests
| SRA | CAT | SAT | ITBS | MAT | CTBS | Average | Range | |
| Content: | ||||||||
| Numbers and number relations | 82 | 73 | 64 | 62 | 66 | 76 | 71 | 20 |
| Number systems and number theory | 7 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 7 |
| Algebra | 7 | 6 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 10 |
| Probability or statistics | 0 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 5 | 11 | 6 | 11 |
| Geometry | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 8 |
| Measurement | 0 | 6 | 15 | 13 | 15 | 5 | 9 | 15 |
| Problem solving | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Communication | 5 | 11 | 38 | 9 | 21 | 25 | 18 | 33 |
| Process: | ||||||||
| Reasoning | 1 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| Connections | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Computation and estimation | 91 | 83 | 62 | 89 | 79 | 71 | 79 | 20 |
| Patterns and functions | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Level | ||||||||
| Concepts | 16 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 12 | 15 | 11 | 12 |
| Procedures | 84 | 90 | 92 | 96 | 88 | 85 | 89 | 12 |
The six tests were:
SRA Science Research Associates Survey of Basic Skills
(SRA 1985, Level 36, Form P)
CAT California Achievement Test (CTB/McGraw-Hill 1985,
Level 18, Form E, Tests 6 and 7)
SAT Stanford Achievement Test (Gardner et al. 1982,
Advanced Level, 7th edition)
ITBS Iowa Test of Basic Skills (Hieronymus, et al. 1986,
Level 14, Form 7)
MAT Metropolitan Achievement Test (Prescott, George A.
1986, Advanced 1, Forms L and M)
CTBS Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTB/McGraw-Hill
1989, Level 17/18, Form A)
References