Wednesday, September 12, 1979
daily nebraskan
paga6
ISills
H is Eminence Seyd Mahmoud Taleghanl, Muslim
Scholar, prominent Iranian leader died of heart failure at
the age of 75, on Sept. 10, 1979.
He was the head of Revolutionary Council of Iran, and
also he was an elected member of parliament for approval
of new constitution of Iran. We can say that he had a
special place in the heart of every Iranian.
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During his life he fought for human rights, freedom
and justice. In his fight for freedom, he was facing an
oppressive regime for more than 50 years.
A atollah Taleghani continued his struggle against the
regi? le of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, too. He was imprison
ed igain and again, and more than one-third of his life was
spf nt in jail.
He is one of the pioneers of the Islamic Renaissance. In
his fight for freedom and justice, he believed in Islam, not
only as a teligion, but also as an ideology and a base for
the freedom of oppressed people.
He was a distinguished writer and speaker and by his
teachings, he, illuminated the road of freedom and justice,
which is not going to be diminished even after his death.
And he almost reached his goal.
Iranian Muslim Student Association
Continued from Page 4
What extra-curricular activities were they involved in?
How did they do in their personal interviews? What did
their teachers think of them? What social and economic
handicaps did they overcome to get where they are?
Depending on the answers to these questions, one
applicant might be admitted while another with an identi
cal test score might be rejected.
If the Gibbons bill is cotton candy, the other proposal-introduced
by Reps. Ted Weiss (DL-N.Y.), Shirley
Chisholm (D-N.Y.) and George Miller (D-Calif.)-is
legislative hoarhound: strong, bitter stuff that doesn't
cure anything.
Like the recently enacted New York law, the Weiss bill
would make it possible for test-takers to obtain copies of
the test, complete .with their own answer sheets and the
official correct answers. And to what end?
"The interests of the students must be protected,"
Chisholm replies. She acknowledges that the bill she co
sponsors "would have no impact on test content or on
cultural bias," but believes it could "be a vehicle for
beginning a comprehensive dialogue on standardized test
ing." Such a dialogue could be useful, but it is hard to see
the contribution to be made by a, law requiring disclosure
of tests and answers, since such a breach of test security
would mean the scrapping of a test after a single adminis
tration. "The indications are that, over a period of years,
certain test-takers tend to be weak in certain subject areas,
but they don't know which areas," Chisholm explained,
"and not knowing could affect their future. Why conceal
it?"
Tfce test-makers have a ready answer: The construction
of standardized tests is a long-and sophisticated process
whose ost is justified by the fact that a particular test
can be used for a number of years. But once a test is made
public, it can no longer be used. As a result, new tests
would have to be generated at least once a year.
Sponsors of the legislation clearly believe that the
public release of tests and answers, could help to spotlight
culturally biased test items. In fact, the opposite might be
truer.
Question development is an exceedingly painstaking,
18-to-24-month process, with many checkpoints for
assessing the accuracy and relevance of each item, involv
ing repeated trials with students and reviews by . . . facul
ty " John A.D. Cooper, president of the Association of
American Medical Colleges, has pointed out.
"Questions are discarded or modified if they fail to
meet necessary standards. All are pretested (for culture
bias among other things) in one administration of the
exam before they are counted in any examination score."
This pretesting and validation would largely be eliminated
by the disclosure requirement of the Weiss bill, he
believes.
Test-makers insist, as well, that the necessity of making
new tests every year would inevitably drive up the cost
of the tests. Chisholm is unmoved.
"People's lives are more important than cost," she says.
"Of course it will cost a little bit more, but we have to
come up with tools to give (unsuccessful test-takers) a
second and third chance, to prepare them for the
exams."
But since publication of any particular test would
lead to its immediate retirement, the corrected exams
would be helpful only in the same generalized way as the
test study guides already available.
Indeed, as Diane Ravitch of Teachers College, Colum
bia University, had pointed out, the major benefit of test
answer publication would accrue not to those who fail
the tests but to those who sell test-taking assistance.
"It will create a bonanza for private tutoring services,
which would have actual tests as teaching tools, not just
their own inventions," she said. "This will increase the
advantage of those who can afford to pay for coaching."
And, she might have added, it won't do anything at all
for those the legislation is intended to help.
(c) 1979, Tha Washington Post Company
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