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The Utility and Need for Incorporating Noncognitive Skills Into Large-Scale Educational Assessments

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The Role of International Large-Scale Assessments: Perspectives from Technology, Economy, and Educational Research

Abstract

Most attention in large-scale assessments on educational progress and outcomes addresses cognitive measures of student proficiency. In part, this focus is due to the assumption that “skills” are cognitive in nature and have a high predictive value in terms of productivity. However, the predictive value of cognitive scores on worker productivity and earnings is more modest than commonly assumed. In fact, attempts to relate cognitive test scores from surveys to economic output, although meritorious, require substantial liberties in the interpretation of data. At the same time, there is considerable evidence that noncognitive attributes of individuals related to school experience are as important as—or even more important than—cognitive attributes in predicting both school outcomes and economic productivity. Noncognitive outcome measurement is more challenging to assess than cognitive because of its highly diverse dimensions and difficulties in sampling performance on these dimensions. This chapter addresses the highly incomplete knowledge base on the potential importance of noncognitive aspects of students and schools, issues of measurement and assessment, and their predictive value on adult outcomes.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The most ambitious and encyclopedic review of personality characteristics as they relate to economic outcomes is found in the comprehensive and magisterial treatment by Almlund et al. (2011). Also see Borghans et al. (2008a).

  2. 2.

    In the spirit of full disclosure, I was the “token academic” on this panel.

  3. 3.

    Heckman has produced most of the important scholarship on this subject and has continued his program to deepen understanding of the role of noncognitive skills. It would take pages to list all of his contributions. However, it would be helpful to review the citations to Heckman and colleagues in the bibliography of the masterful article by Borghans et al. (2008a). Heckman’s role is central to the content of the symposium on “The Noncognitive Determination of Labor Market and Behavioral Outcomes,” XVII (4).

  4. 4.

    Also see the papers presented at the recent IZA Workshop: Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills, January 25–27, Bonn, Germany. Available at: http://www.iza.org/link/CoNoCoSk2011.

  5. 5.

    This is an overwhelmingly ambitious exercise to map personality traits into economic modelling.

  6. 6.

    From an economist’s perspective, there would be concern for problems of endogeneity in use of some of the explanatory variables.

  7. 7.

    As a more general proposition I would leave this as an open question. Some four decades ago I used the Coleman data to estimate the determinants of multiple school outcomes in a model that allowed for simultaneous equations estimation (Levin 1970). The results of that model estimation suggested reciprocal relationships where motivation and sense of efficacy influence student achievement and are also influenced by student achievement.

  8. 8.

    Hanushek has responded that even if this is true, the magnitude of the gains in income are so large that even enormous biases still leave very large unrealized gains.

  9. 9.

    This has been recognized increasingly on both sides of the Atlantic. See Brunello and Schlotter (2010) for a report prepared for the European Commission.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120 Street, 10027, New York, NY, USA

    Henry M. Levin Ph.D.

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  1. Henry M. Levin Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Henry M. Levin Ph.D. .

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  1. Educational Testing Service, Rosedale Road, Princeton, 08541, New Jersey, USA

    Matthias von Davier

  2. Educational Testing Service, Rosedale Road, Princeton, 08541, New Jersey, USA

    Eugenio Gonzalez

  3. Educational Testing Service, Rosedale Road, Princeton, 08541, New Jersey, USA

    Irwin Kirsch

  4. Educational Testing Service, Rosedale Road, Princeton, 08541, New Jersey, USA

    Kentaro Yamamoto

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Levin, H.M. (2013). The Utility and Need for Incorporating Noncognitive Skills Into Large-Scale Educational Assessments. In: von Davier, M., Gonzalez, E., Kirsch, I., Yamamoto, K. (eds) The Role of International Large-Scale Assessments: Perspectives from Technology, Economy, and Educational Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4629-9_5

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