You can call it an exponent of GERM if you will, but standardized tests are a hot topic in many regions across the world. Still, what does it mean if the scores on these tests grow? In a new research published in Psychological Science Finn et al. from institutes as MIT, Brown and Harvard looked at both the standardized test scores (Math and English language arts) and cognitive ability (working memory, processing speed and abstract reasoning) among nearly 1,400 8th graders attending traditional, exam and charter public schools in Boston.

For who doesn’t know what charter schools are, do check here. Interestingly, the research was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institute of Health. With the foundation being a proponent of standardized tests.

Here are the highlights as summed up by Scott Barry Kaufman for the Huftington Post:

• There was a substantial correlation between standardized test scores and cognitive ability. In other words, good test takers already tend to have high levels of working memory, processing speed and abstract reasoning skills.

• Cognitive ability was associated with growth in achievement test scores from 4th to 8th grade.

• The school a student attended, and the quality of education they received, played little role in the growth of cognitive ability. This is consistent with prior research suggesting that cognitive ability predicts academic achievement, but academic achievement does not predict cognitive ability.

• The school a student attended, and the quality of education they received, did play a role in the growth of standardized achievement test scores.
• Students attending a charter school as a result of winning the admissions lottery had higher standardized test scores compared to students who lost the lottery.

• There was no difference between the lottery groups, however, on measures of cognitive ability.

Ok, what we know now: yes you can raise the scores, but you can’t raise people’s cognitive abilities by using these tests. This  study provides evidence that schools influence standardized test scores that reflect crystallized knowledge but have no apparent influence on cognitive skills reflecting fluid intelligence.

Abstract from the research paper that you can download here:

Cognitive skills predict academic performance, so schools that improve academic performance might also improve cognitive skills. To investigate the impact schools have on both academic performance and cognitive skills, we related standardized achievement test scores to measures of cognitive skills in a large sample (N=1,367) of 8th-grade students attending traditional, exam, and charter public schools. Test scores and gains in test scores over time correlated with measures of cognitive skills. Despite wide variation in test scores across schools, differences in cognitive skills across schools were negligible after controlling for 4th-grade test scores. Random offers of enrollment to over-subscribed charter schools resulted in positive impacts of such school attendance on math achievement, but had no impact on cognitive skills. These findings suggest that schools that improve standardized achievement tests do so primarily through channels other than cognitive skills.