Iowa Almanac
Iowa Almanac -- Thursday, November 07, 2024
Test Taking. More from the Iowa Almanac in a moment. It wouldn't be Christmas without Camp Courageous Fruit Cakes, and they're now available in stores across Iowa and at Camp Courageous.org/fruitcakes. Camp Courageous Fruit Cakes are generously filled with cherries, nuts, pineapple, coconut, and just the right amount of cake batter to hold it all together. Best of all, proceeds go to support Camp Courageous near Monticello, Iowa, for a list of stores or to order online go to Camp Courageous.org/fruitcakes. High school students who are getting ready for college spend weeks preparing for standardized testing. It used to be colleges had their own individual entrance exams, which was cumbersome for those applying to multiple colleges. The Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT, was developed in 1901 as a way to streamline the process, but it emphasized cognitive reasoning. Leave it to an Iowa to use Midwest Common Sense to come up with an alternative focused on practical knowledge. The University of Iowa had held an annual tournament for academics called the Iowa Academic Meat. In 1929, University of Iowa professor Everett Franklin Lindquist began overseeing the meat, which got the nickname "Brain Derby" among the 1,000 students who participated each year. After looking at data from that program, Lindquist was able to create new strategies when it came to designing standardized testing. He used them in his work for the Iowa tests of basic skills for sixth through eighth graders and the Iowa tests of educational development for high school students. One of his ideas was to provide separate answer sheets and scoring keys, as well as computerized scoring devices to increase efficiency. In order to provide a better college admission test, Lindquist co-founded the American College Testing Program in the summer of 1959. It started strong with 75,460 students taking the first ACT test on November 7, 1959. It had four parts, English, Mathematics, Social Studies and Natural Studies, and lasted three hours, with a maximum composite score of 36. It soon gained in popularity over the SAT because not only could it more accurately predict college performance, it helped identify student strengths and weaknesses. Still used today as a primary way of measuring student aptitude for college, the first ACT test developed by University of Iowa Professor E. F. Lindquist was given on this date in 1959. And that's Iowa Almanac for November 7. There's more online at IowaAlmanac.com. Until tomorrow, I'm Jeff Stein.