Running Africa

The State Of Standardized Testing In Liberia And Proposals For The Way Forward

This article reflects on the state of standardized testing in Liberia and how a process of deep-seated change to anticipate desirable outcomes could be instituted. As an educator who cares about the advancement of education in Liberia, I was recently disheartened when I heard of cancellations of West African Examinations Council’s (WAEC) annual examinations. These cancellations have come as the result of alleged fraud in some parts of the school system and the examination bureaucracy itself. This is not the first time one is hearing of such rabid malpractices in the examination system in Liberia. All indications to me point to the fact that these malpractices are merely symptomatic of deeper structural flaws. This perhaps might be an inescapable conclusion. One would wish to take advantage of this recent crisis, however, to put forward series of innovative ideas and specific propositions that might serve as a basis for educational reform as the national exams as an institution has now become not only anachronistic but a mechanism for profit making and an end onto itself. Such efforts befit the spirit and mood of the times and an educational system as old as the one in Liberia, which began in the 19^th century.

Perhaps one could not deny that before the war incidents of test fraud occurred but these incidents seemed to be rear in Liberia. These maladies were indeed not pervasive in pre war times. However, of recent, these incidents indicating all manner of fraud in the system have now become a commonplace. For example, many observers have testified that during the war, such practices involving teacher and institutional corruption became very rampant throughout the structure and at all levels of the national education system in the country. These testimonies have been made to me in interviews I conducted for my book project (Johnson, 2006). While the unpredictability and intricacies of brutal national conflict could have provided a reasonable cop out in an attempt to explain away the causes of these problems, it has become somewhat difficult to do so in a purportedly new era of national peace and reconstruction.

Indeed, one would regard this postconflict era and the unleashing of changed circumstances as one in which educational development and the progress of all our children in schools should become a principal concern. Brutal and civil conflict might have taught us that reason and education are at the core of moral forms of life and a deliberative society in which the rule of law supplants the rule of powerful men and women. Thus, a path toward reason is a path of virtue, education and critical consciousness. I have no illusions, however, that Liberian society in its current institutional forms is anything close to a learning society where institutions can themselves become learning institutions. However, one would argue that a rationale for the existence of current national society must be grounded in normative principles and communicative forms of rationality and thinking (Brookfield, 2005).

These propositional assumptions speak to the need to begin a systemic reform of our educational system. There may have been many plans in the past but these plans have not left the drawing board. Thus, it is now time to comtemplate concrete and practical solutions to some of the perennial structural and organizational problems that have plagued our educational system across many generations. It is imperative at this point to reflect upon the lack of correspondence and complementarities between the multiple levels and structures of schooling and education in Liberia.

Such a thorough going reflective process is crucial to any critical understanding of the dimensions of human capital development in a country recovering from the wounds of civil conflict. The national examinations in Liberia must form a part of this policy reappraisal and renewal process. One would submit that in undertaking such a transformative process, a series of critical questions must first be examined in the context of praxis. Such critical questions include: What exactly is the role of national examinations in educational policy in Liberia? Are WAEC examinations standardized test or not? What is the form and nature of a standardized test? How could the WAEC examinations be made to serve as effective and appropriate diagnostic tools to enhance the alleviation of educational and cognitive deficits among our student population? There is the issue of special educational and learning needs, which must be diagnosed under any viable regime of educational testing. The next section discusses the meaning and evolution of standardized testing in Liberia.

Meaning and evolution of standardized testing

The above cited questions are both necessary and determinative not only as one gauges the meaning of standardized tests as diagnostic and evaluative tools but also in gauging the multiple shades and contours of crisis in our educational system. To gain substantial insights into these questions and the issues they raised we might first attempt to trace the evolution of standardized testing and what do they stand to achieve at a broad or abstract level. This would invariably give us some clues about the forms of standardized testing. Standardized testing as a method of accountability and ensuring universal standards can be traced back to ancient times. The earliest standardized testing based on merit comes from the Han dynasty in China. The concept of a state ruled by men of ability and virtue was an outgrowth of Confucian philosophy. The imperial examinations administered during the Han dynasty covered the Six Arts which included music, archery and horsemanship, arithmetic, writing, and knowledge of the rituals and ceremonies of both private and public domains.

In Europe, the invention of the printing press and modern paper manufacturing fueled the growth of written exams (Mathews, 2006). In the United States the first large-scale use of IQ test was during World War I (cir 1914-18). By 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education ACT had required standardized testing in public schools. The NO Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (the central plank of George Bush’s educational policy) otherwise known as [US Public Law 107-110] has further tied public schools to standardized testing. Many commentators on the left of the political spectrum have accused The No Child Left Behind initiative of mandating high stakes testing, which has created havoc and upheavals in some quarters of the American educational system (see for example, Strauss, 2006).

A standardized test is usually a test administered and scored in a standard manner. The Office of Technology Assessment at the United States Congress defines standardized test as one that uses uniform procedures for administration and scoring in order to assure the results from different people are comparable (Cited in Bond, 1996). The tests are designed with accuracy and consistency in mind. This means that the test questions, conditions for administering, scoring procedures, and interpretations of test results are consistent across the board. One is led to think that the national examinations in Liberia do not satisfy these fundamental requirements for a standardized test. The national examinations in Liberia are taken as exit exams for students at both the junior and senior high levels. The national examinations may be standardized in name but not in practice. There are many reasons for this statement. For example, many students, teachers and educational administers have complained about the lack of consistency in test conditions. Complains about the reliability and validity of the national examinations have been persistent over the years. Some schools find themselves taking the exams in total darkness while others do not. Some test takers are sometimes compared to use candles in dark examination halls and may be constantly interrupted as the result of lack of sufficient space in exams halls.

Students even start the test at different times at examination centers around the country. This happens in instances where the exams are supposed to be administered on the same day with the same time intervals. These situations defy considerations of validity and reliability viewed as essential elements for determining the quality of any standardized test. There are many anecdotal accounts gathered from primary and secondary sources that verify these claims. This is what a reporter for The Inquirer newspaper (2007) had to say regarding some of the structural flaws in the administration of the national examinations this year:

For instance this year, he claimed the test delayed for several hours in most testing centers thereby triggering anxiety in most of the kids and laying the ground for unscrupulous individuals to infiltrate the examiners with fake exam answers (p.2).

Furthermore, the fact that some students were seen taking the test in groups because of the shortage of test materials is also a troubling development. The country will have to decide whether to use these tests as exiting exams in our primary and secondary school system. One realizes the difficult economic and financial environment but that should not be an excuse. With the right national priorities some of these difficulties around testing could be resolved. The test could also be eliminated and replaced with other forms of non-standardized assessments that would ensure accountability at the level of the individual school and institution. Such an educational model does exist in many countries, including the United States. The failings in the administration of the national examinations in Liberia have been acknowledged by most observers including some of our policy authorities. For example, the current Minister of education in Liberia Joseph Korto has confirmed in an interview with the Voice of American network that there were massive leakages of test answers in many streets of Monrovia during this examinations season.

The Minister also agreed to the claims that the problem of exam leakage and irregularities had happened in the past indicating that this was a persistent problem that needed to be resolved. The minister then promise to put in place measures that would avoid this problem from occurring in the future. In fact a committee has been set up to probe into the matter. What he did not say, however, was any thing regarding a possible reappraisal of the examinations itself and its relevance to the promotion of cultural consciousness and economic and social development objectives in Liberia. There seems to be a void in current policy thinking and practice when it comes to these issues. I am writing this article with the intention of providing some clues as to how this void could be filled. The remaining sections of the article will shed light on how changes could be brought about in terms of constructing alternative regimes of testing and accountability in both schooling and tertiary education in Liberia.

An instrument of British colonialism in West Africa

Given the structural and administrative flaws associated with the national examinations in Liberia, it remains unclear how could one compare the requirements of a typical standardized test with the WAEC based national examinations in the country. Indeed, there are many practical and structural loopholes that make comparisons difficult. However, it may be helpful to trace the history of WAEC in order to gain some insight into its original and present intentions as an examining body in Anglophone West Africa. From an anthropological standpoint, the arena of culture and its functions is very critical to colonial and social analysis. At least, if anything, this is what the structural functionalists have taught us (Layton, 1997). Cultural analysis is important just as power and economic analysis is also critical to deconstructing the colonial mentality and the racial and psychological complex associated with the colonial system (Amin, 1976; 1980; Parham et al, 2000). Thus, a reasonable assumption to make in tracing the origins of WAEC is that such history must be pitted against the colonial imperatives of the British in West Africa. These premises lend credence to the unarguable statement that European colonial penetration of Africa was essentially about economic, cultural, linguistic and political domination. Thus, British colonial domination of parts of West Africa created social facts on the ground that would propel its educational and cultural mission.

These facts inevitably led to the establishment of WAEC. The organization itself was established in 1951 as the result of a meeting between the University of Cambridge local examinations syndicate, University of London school examinations matriculation council and West African departments of education in 1948. The meeting was claimed to have been the result of concerns for education in West Africa. This was at a time when the ferment against the scourge of colonialism in Africa was gaining momentum in the light of an emerging African liberation movement on the continent. Dr. G. B. Jeffrey (Director of the University of London Institute of Education) was selected to visit some West African countries so as to assess the problems of education in the region. Jeffrey did not visit Liberia during his visit as our country was not in the orbit of the British sphere of influence in colonial Africa. However, he tendered a report, which became the basis for the formation of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC). Liberia was not an original member of this organization. However, she later issued an ordinance thereby agreeing to join the body in 1974 at an annual meeting held in Lagos, Nigeria.

The ordinance of WAEC agreed to the coordination of exams and the issuance of certificates to individual students in member countries. The certificates issued by WAEC are valid only if they can be compared to their equivalent certificates of examining authorities in the United Kingdom. If nothing else, this indicates to me that West African primary and secondary education was destined to become a mirror image of British education regardless of the fact that the needs of West Africans and Britain would differ even within the context of a colonial political economy. Officials of WAEC have made many claims over the years; such as how this examination council has worked to support and promote education in Africa and in administering valid examinations that are relevant to the aspirations of member countries.

But not much has changed in terms of an agenda for educational growth to meet the needs of development and social change in the sub-region. In fact in the face of these claims, we still see educational systems throughout West Africa challenged by the lack of resources and relevance for the economic and social requirements for the 21^st century. The lack of correspondence between the requirements of British inspired educational systems in parts of Anglophone West Africa and those of an American inspired one in Liberia has not been properly acknowledged. Furthermore, curricula changes that have been indigenously inspired in countries like Ghana such as the mandating of the teaching of Ghanaian languages in schools have not yet caught the attention of Liberian policy makers.

There are many other significant ways in which curriculum philosophies and praxis differ in these countries that have come under a single standardized testing regime through the auspices of WAEC. Cultural and ecological variables account for differences in cognitive and learning styles and the institutional organization of learning systems that have yet to be properly appreciated. Thus, for WAEC to succeed, there must be closer integration and harmonization of educational systems and structural frameworks in the Sub-region. Having had the benefit of experiencing the British and Liberian systems and now the American system as a student and lecturer respectively, I know what the nature of these stark differences are and I also know some of the things that could be done to bridge the gap in terms of the implementation of a progressive curriculum that ensures education for personal and social empowerment and cognitive transformation in a post-industrial age. The next section discusses the two types of standardized testing with an intention to locate a testing and evaluation process that might provide alternatives to the current testing regime in Liberia.

There are two main types of standardized tests that could be mentioned in this discussion: norm-referenced tests (NRT) and criterion-referenced tests (CTR), resulting in a norm referenced score or a criterion referenced score, respectively. Criterion referenced tests scores compare test-takers to a criterion. This may also be referred to as standards-based assessment by standards-based educational reformers. Criterion referenced tests differ from norm referenced tests in the way they are interpreted: On a criterion referenced test, a student’s performance is evaluated in terms of the performance of the other students taking the test. In this way criterion referenced tests can be more useful to teachers in identifying and planning remedial instruction in the areas in which an individual student of the entire class has demonstrated weaknesses. The main reason for using norm referenced tests is to classify students into different categories (Bond, 1996). Stiggins (ibid, p.1) has indicated quite succinctly that norm-reference tests are designed to highlight achievement differences between and among students to produce a dependable rank order of students across a continuum of achievement from high achievers to low achievers.

There are several tests administered in the United States that could be referred to as norm referenced tests. These include the California Achievement Test (CTB/McGraw-Hill), the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (Riverside) and the Metropolitan Achievement Test (Psychological Corporation). These tests are typically normed using a national sample of students. Norming a test is such an elaborate and expensive process, that these tests are typically used by test publishers for 7 years. All students who take the test during that seven year period have their scores compared to the original norm group of students. Criterion referenced tests give detailed information about how well a student has performed on each of the educational goals or outcomes included on that test. For example, a criterion referenced test score might describe which arithmetic operations a student can perform or the level of reading difficulty he or she can comprehend. As long as the content of the test matches the content that is considered important to learn, the criterion referenced test gives the student, the teacher, and the parent more information about how much of the valued content has been learned than a norm referenced test.

This is a strategic aspect of these tests because they allow parent and community involvement in students’ performance. Teacher-made tests are advocated because they can be tailored to specific curricula or specific needs for information about students. Generally, teacher-made tests are criterion-referenced and are designed to measure students’ mastery of the material being taught in a particular class. Criterion referenced tests can provide information on small units of instruction not covered by standardized norm referenced tests (Barbara, 1984). For these test to be most effective, teachers require opportunities of training in the development and use of tests (ibid). Despite the positive effect of testing generally when conducted properly, there are disadvantages one could enumerate. These include the temptation to use standardized tests to focus curriculum and instruction. In such cases, what is not tested is not taught, and how the subject is tested becomes a model for how to teach the subject. Critics would argue that in such cases other forms of learning such as meta-cognitive and higher order learning tend to be ignored.

One acknowledges the fact that there is a distinct difference between childhood learning and adult learning. While learning in childhood has a formative function, learning in adulthood has a transfromative function (Mezirow, 1995). In developmental psychology, theorists call this stage of dialectical transformation postformal operations to indicate a transcending of Piagetian formal operations (Merriam, 2004). Adults critically assess assumptions behind culturally assimilated ways of knowing, believing, and feeling (Mezirow, 1995). These developmental differences do not exclude the possibility for fostering forms of learning and cognitive development in childhood that might facilitate the transition to pragmatic necessities in adulthood. This suggests that the foundations of adult cognition such as flexibility, contradiction, relativity of knowledge, and reciprocal dialogue could be developed in childhood through appropriate educational and curriculum interventions.

Dialogical forms of learning attach great importance to the active role of the person in constituting his or her knowledge (with the implication that learning through activity is more meaningful then passive learning). Meaningful learning in this sense may not necessarily be instrumental, but it is purposeful, liberating and deep. It signals a shift away from behaviorist orthodoxy in our theoretical understanding of learning. Elsewhere (Johnson, 2006) I have indicated that meaningful and deep learning can not take place in the classroom when there are distortions caused by the strategic use of language. These distortions can be the result of the use of overt or latent threats, which can have an exerting influence on classroom dynamics. The strategic or illocutionary use of language is different from communicative use (ibid). This distinction has practical consequences in terms of the promotion of a student-centered and transformative pedagogy.

Dialogical and interactive forms of learning encourage assessment methodologies that lay emphasis on the use of educational journals, collaborative projects, autobiographies, learning contracts between teachers and students etc. Teachers in Liberian schools should be trained and encouraged to use these assessment methods as a critical part of criterion referenced testing. Autobiographies, for example, can be used as an instrument of reflection and self-criticism. Furthermore, collaborative forms of project learning have been used for solving existing problems and posing new ones at the cutting edge of critical expertise, technology, science and innovation. This is why techniques in collaboration and group processes at all levels of the educational assessment regime should be encouraged and prioritized by educational policy makers.

The encouragement of dialogical learning presupposes pedagogical techniques in the classroom that focus on the education of the whole child or person including mind, body and soul. Such educational approach shows linkages and existential unity of all participants in reciprocal and reasoned dialogue. Habermas and his followers call this participatory model of development universal pragmatics or discourse ethics (Coles, 1995). I call it the essential bridge between an African past and its future. For, the past of Africa was embedded in dialogue and associational processes that often took place under the palaver hut as we would call it in Liberia. So its future must be undergirded by reasoned discourse and reciprocity in the public sphere. This is a critical linguistic turn that indicates a shift to maturity and pragmatic necessities as suggested by Labouvie-Vief (1980). Thus, Liberian students in a postconflict situation must be taught how to participate in discourse and problem solving as equal participants on the basis of an equal distribution of power and an intersubjective consciousness. Educational programs especially at the high school and tertiary levels must reinforce an ethic of reciprocity, critical reflection and mutual solidarity. These programs would ensure communicative competence, which is the foundation for the achievement of instrumental objectives in the domains of learning and participatory models of development.

This is also a case for the accentuation of individual autonomy and an ethical basis for democratic participation in an evolving civil society in Liberia. The pragmatist John Dewey had a philosophical project, which attempted to create a system in which democratic participation in various forms of life was considered essential to self-realization (Mezirow, 1995, pp.66-7). Ghanaian philosopher Kwame Gyekye (1988) views the individual within the African context as possessing of both communal sensibility and a concept of the self and volition. He concludes that the African social order is therefore amphibious, manifesting features of both community and individuality. Leophold Senghor (1963) echoed these views when he regarded traditional society as a society where the group could have priority over the individual without crushing him. Senghor suggested that through dialogue and reciprocity, the individual could blossom within the framework of group and communal solidarity. South African philosopher Augustine Shuttle (1993) uses a Xhosa proverb to illustrate this essential hypothesis, which states that a person is a person through persons (umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu).

What these views about the relationship between the individual and society primarily suggest is that learning goals must reinforce individual autonomy within the framework of communicative practices that foster a spirit of community and connectivity. These type of learning goals also take account of an understanding that responsible citizenship means confronting and taking action against all forms of asymmetry and inequality in the distribution of power and resources that may be perpetuated through discourse and social practice. Project learning, journals, and group and individual reflective processes and feedback could be used to evaluate the quality of learning in this area.

As has already been indicated, there are a variety of things that could be done by the current administration to promote an improvement of education and the evaluation of educational output. One of those things to do in the immediate term is to redouble efforts aimed at following up on the various memoranda of understanding the Liberian government continue to sign with foreign governments and institutions. These entities have volunteered to help rebuilt educational and social services in Liberia. Maybe the government needs a project coordinator to conduct an effective use of diplomacy to bring to fruition promises made by foreign institutions about the improvement of education and training. These efforts must be undertaken in view of the required structural and strategic reforms that the system of education in Liberia needs to propel it into the 21^st century. The Liberian educational trust fund based here in the United States should be encouraged to incorporate innovative approaches in teaching and learning in funding projects geared at teacher training and the building of curricula programs for primary and secondary schools.

This article has discussed some of the sources of the current crisis in the Liberian educational system. This crisis points towards the need to institute fundamental reforms in Liberian education so as to propel it into the 21^st century. The high incidents of fraud in the national examinations these days are mere symptoms of deeper structural and organizational flaws that must be addressed with imagination and foresight. Thus, the article has put forward a vision of evaluation and accountability in education that rest on criterion referenced testing and collaborative learning processes. It is suggested that student-centered approaches to teaching and learning based on dialogue, reciprocity and democracy are preferable to a philosophy of didactic teaching (where students and learners become the depositories of knowledge) that characterized authoritarian and behaviorist approaches to education. Many educators today uphold the Socratic method because experience has shown that there is merit in this approach to education. It fosters creativity, imagination and critical thinking. It also involves a double-loop process in which learning involves systemic critical reflection of assumptions or the modification of underlying institutional principles and policies.

A student-centered and constructivist approach further indicates that students and teachers would become co-creators of knowledge and experience in the classroom. Current educational dollars in the proposed national budget could be used to streamline the bureaucracy at the education ministry with a view of cutting waste thereby spending most of the $15.2 million dollars allocated to education this year to properly pay teachers and train them in the use of progressive methods. A substantial part of these budgetary allocations could also be used to resource schools and adult learning programs with textbooks and supplementary materials that they need to become competitive and enlightened participants in an evolving global society. Ultimately, the policy preferences put forward in this article, all things being equal, might make a modest contribution to deepening specialization, critical expertise, productivity, and entrepreneurship in all sectors of the Liberian economy and public life.

Amin, S. (1976) Unequal Development: An Essay on the Social Formation of Peripheral Capitalism. New York: Monthly Review Press

------------(1980) Class and Nation, Historically and in the Current Crisis. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Barbara, M. (1984) Alternatives To Standardized Tests. Eric Clearinghouse on tests and measurement and evaluation, Princeton NJ.

Bond, L.(1996) Norm- and Criterion-Referenced Testing. Eric Clearinghouse on assessment and evaluation, Washington, DC.

Brookfield, S. (2005) The Power of Critical theory: Liberating Adult Learning and Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Chea-Annan and Yates (2007) Liberia: Some Seniors Take Test in Groups. The Inquirer, Monrovia, Liberia.

Coles, R. (1995) Identity and Difference in the Ethical Positions of Adorno and Habermas. In S.K.White (Ed.), the Cambridge Companion to Habermas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gyekye, K. (1988) The Unexamined life: Philosophy and the African Experience. Accra: Ghana University Presss.

Johnson, T. (2006) Promoting Dialogue and Democracy in Postconflict Liberia. Bloomington: Author House

Labouvie-Vief, G. (1980) Beyond Formal Operations: Uses and Limits of Pure Logic in Life-Span Development, Human Development, 23,pp.141-161.

Layton, R. (1997) An Introduction to Theory in Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mathews, J. (2006) Just Whose Idea was all this Testing. The Washington Post. Washington DC.

Merriam, S.B. (2004) The Role of Cognitive Development in Mezirow’s Transformational Learning Theory. Adult Education Quarterly,55(1),pp.60-68.

Mezirow, J. (1995) Transformative Theory of Adult Learning, In M.R. Welton (Ed), In defense of the Lifeworld: Critical Perspectives on Adult Learning, New York: State University of New York Press.

Parham, T. et al (2000) The Psychology of Blacks: An African Centered Perspective. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Popham, J. (1999) Why Standardized Test Don’t Measure Educational Quality. Educational Leadership, 56(6), 8-15.

Senghor, L. (1963) “Negritude and African Socialism,” in St. Anthony’s Papers No. 15 (Ed.), K. Kirkwood, pp.16-22. London: The African Publication.

Shutte, A. (1993) Philosophy for Africa. Rodenbosch: University of Cape Town Press.

Tarnue Johnson currently teaches in the behavioral and social sciences department at East-West University. He completed undergraduate and graduate studies in Europe and the United States. He taught for two years as a social science lecturer at City College Manchester in England before moving to the United States. Mr. Johnson holds an MA degree in political economy, a postgraduate certificate ( PGCE) in adult education and a doctorate degree in adult education with emphasis in transformational learning. He has written two books on educational reforms and social change in Liberia. He has also written several articles in the areas of conflict resolution, political and moral theory and the democratic theory of discourse ethics. He currently resides with his family in River Forest, Illinois and can be reach at: newspaper012@yahoo.com