Colorado students may face entrance, exit exams
The Colorado Commission for Achievement in Education has been studying higher educational improvement all summer. State Governor Roy Romer said that the test would not be a graduation requirement. Instead, by comparing results on entrance and exit exams, education officials can measure the "value added" benefits of education.
Romer believes the exam should test basic writing skills, basic mathematics analytical skills and an understanding of civic or government operations.
The results of the test could help determine the cost of education, where money should be allocated and how faculty could be better used.
Romer insists that the testing program would benefit all students. He believes it would be an incentive for colleges because the testing could possibly be tied to funding.
Opponents to the program believe it could cause undue competition between colleges whose focuses and functions are different.
Senator Tom Norton also pointed out the inherent unfairness of the test toward students who are highly specialized. Norton said that music students, for example, may not fare as well as engineering students on the math exam.
A similar program was attempted in Washington in the early 1980s, but it proved to be a difficult task, said Al Yates, president of Colorado State University.
Source: The Rocky Mountain Collegian, Sept. 12.
No inserts?
Environmental groups on the A&M campus protested the use of advertising inserts in The Battalion , their school newspaper.
According to Cassandra DeLarios, Student Government Environmental Issue Committee chair and Residence Hall Association environmental affairs director, the inserts are ineffective and simply a waste of paper and resources. She said she has had little success in getting student publications to change its policy.
She added that most students do not actually take the inserts with them when they pick up the paper.
Student publications director Robert Wegener said that The Battalion does not print the inserts but accepts them as paid advertising.
Also, Wegener said that bins are available near paper pick-up sites to leave any unwanted inserts. The paper tries to reduce inserts by charging high prices to their advertisers. However, many advertisers still like the use of color and the flexibility available with insert advertising.
Source: The Texas A&M Battalion, Nov. 1.
This item appeared in the News section of the November 10, 1995 issue.
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