HIGH STAKE EXAMS AND STRATIFICATION IN …ldt.stanford.edu/~dtu05/files/ed309x_paper.doc · Web viewWhat is interesting about the National College Entrance Exam reform in Taiwan is

HIGH STAKE EXAMS AND STRATIFICATION IN TAIWAN

DAVID TUStanford University School of Education

June 9th, 2006

EDUC 309x: Contemporary Issues in China

For final project Review Essay purposes onlyPlease do not cite or quote without permission from the authors

ABSTRACT

This review essay examines the research streams on education stratification in Taiwan, in the

context of high stake exams and its effects on educational equality. Being motivated by the

recent exam reform trend in Asian countries, where multiple countries are in the process of

moving from the single National College Entrance Exam as the sole criteria for access to higher

education, to the multiple admissions method using applications, exams, and recommendations,

this review essay is an attempt at a preliminary look on how these changes might affect

educational equality. In all, two preliminary insights can be drawn: 1) when considering

previous education preparations, high stake exams by itself do not lead to education inequality,

and 2) high stake exams do propagate education stratifications that happens early on in the

students’ educational paths.

1 INTRODUCTION

High stake exams are not new to Asian countries. In countries such as China, Taiwan, Korea,

and Japan, college entrance, and sometimes even high school entrance, are decided by a single

national exam. This often creates too much pressure for the students, leading to a wide array of

p. 1/19

Ed309x Review Essay David Tu

societal problems. Particularly for the students who fail, they often become dejected and

stigmatized. Further, they may be at a loss to define their role in society, thus effectively

becoming an outcast in the society. Additionally, high stake exams may lead to problems for

learning, such as the misalignment between what should be learned and what the students

actually tries to learn. Anecdotal evidence tells us that it is prevalent for the students to sleep in

class while outside of class, spend the rest of their day in cram schools to memorize facts for the

national exam. What is being taught in school is thought to be unimportant, because it is not on

the exam.

Thus, much research studies have focused on the above-mentioned issues about high stake

exams: the pressure that the student faces and the alignment in learning. Indeed, studies about

the impact of high stake exams on education are very important. In Buchmann and Hannum’s

review paper, the authors made a great illustration on the factors impacting education outcomes:

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(Figure 1: Research on Education and Stratification in Developing Countries)

(Buchmann and Hannum, p. 79)

As can be seen in the illustration, the impact of State Policies, such as the National College

Entrance Exam, impacts a host of other factors such as family, school, and community, which

then in turn impacts educational outcomes. Therefore studies of these high stake exams and its

reforms are indeed very important. Further, these studies have already resulted in very positive

changes. For one, exam reforms has focused on changing the exam format to incorporate more

integrated critical thinking skills, rather than rote memorization. The intent here is to encourage

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students to acquire problem-solving skills and wider range of experiences that are relevant for

the real world. Such is the intent of the 2000 exam reform in China, known as the “3 + x”

system (Cheng, p. 12). However, can exam reform in the context of high stake exams really

address the first problem (pressure that the student faces)? After all, passing the exam is still the

only mean of social mobility (Cheng, p. 10).

Aside from the exam pressure and alignment of learning, there is one more potential research

question regarding high stake exams that is, in this author’s opinion, rather under-researched:

“What is the impact of high stake exams on educational equity?”

It is a surprise to the author that not many research articles specifically address this question in

the Asian context, although there seems to be plausible arguments that high stake exams can

affect educational equity. For one, since high stake exams are often national, it can be argued

that the exam is biased toward the ethnic and socioeconomic majority, therefore biased against

ethnic minorities and low SES (socioeconomic status) populations. Additionally, because

traditionally men dominated higher education, there might be test bias toward boys and against

girls. Further, test bias aside, it seems plausible that because exam preparation requires

substantial resources (time, money, materials), the entire process indirectly favors those groups

that are endowed with such resources (Chen and Liu, p. 3). In all, it seems likely that

dependence on a single exam for access to further education intensifies educational inequality, or

at the very least propagates it. But if it only serves to propagate is, and is not the source, then

should anything be done about it? Chen and Liu noted that compared to other college

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admissions methods, the use of the single National College Entrance Exam is more meritocratic

in the eyes of the general population (Chen and Liu, p. 3). At least there is not a way to game the

system. In either case, it seems important to study more closely the effects of high-stake exams

in the context educational equality.

Thus it is the intent of this review essay to discuss the issues of educational

inequality/stratification in the context of high stake exams. In subsection 1.1, a literature review

on the definition of educational equity will be discussed. In subsection 1.2, current reforms in

National College Entrance Exams will be discussed. In section 2, a case study of high stake

exams and the educational environment in Taiwan will be discussed, with a focus on ethnic

minorities (2.1), girls (2.2), and low SES population (2.3). In section 3, conclusions will be

drawn and in section 4, references are listed.

1.1 EDUCATIONAL EQUITY (DEFINITION)

Since this review essay is focused on educational equity, it is prudent to first introduce the

definition of educational equity. In Chang and Lin, the authors mentioned that in 1948 the

United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in which Article 26 says

“everyone has the right to education.” (Chang and Lin, p. 3). This article stressed educational

equity. Yet, what does this mean in its implementation? Chang and Lin suggest that it might

mean equity to access in terms of entry, equity in the educational process and materials, or even

equity in educational attainment. All these are very different perspectives, potentially leading to

different conclusions about educational equity in a particular environment. In Tsai, the author

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noted that there is shift globally in looking at the inputs of education to the outputs of education,

as one considers educational equity. Tsai mentioned the shift in England, where the 1967 The

Plowden Report introduced the idea of positive discrimination, which basically advocated

providing additional resources for students of low socioeconomic status (Tsai p. 112-113).

Further, Tsai mentioned the shift in United States, where the 1966 Coleman Report introduced

the idea of compensatory education (Tsai p. 113). In all, Tsai suggest that in the history of

educational equity, researchers have moved from focusing on access to education to educational

attainment.

1.2 CURRENT REFORMS IN NATIONAL COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAM

Having defined the perspective for looking at educational equity, one must wonder why look at

National College Entrance Exam, as opposed to the host of other factors mentioned in the

Buchmann and Hannum paper, such as family, school, and communities? What is appealing

about studying National College Entrance Exam at this point of time is the type of common

reform that is going through the various Asian countries. It seems more than coincidence that all

the countries listed below are undergoing a reform that pushes more toward university-level

admissions, or at the very least less dependence on the National College Entrance Exam.

Perhaps it is a move to alleviate the pressures that the students face and to put learning back into

the classrooms. But, it will be interesting to see the impact on educational inequality on the

long-run.

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1.2.1 Taiwan

The following information came from a news article in ChinaTaiwan (ChinaTaiwan). The article

claimed that the first university in Taiwan was started in 1946 during the Japanese occupation

and was started by the Japanese. The university is now National Taiwan University. Now, in

2000, Taiwan has 53 public universities, 74 private universities, and 23 vocational colleges. In

all, the higher education student population is 109,000. What is interesting about the National

College Entrance Exam reform in Taiwan is that in 2001, Taiwan adopted an alternative college

application method than the traditional one test process. Now, the applicants have the option to

directly apply to the universities, using a combination of application, recommendation, and

alternative tests. On the university side, each individual university now has their say in how to

accept students. This is a departure from the one exam system, where students are placed in

universities depending on test scores. Of course, the traditional method is still present and many

students still choose to use this traditional method as a last resort.

One thing to note is that according to the Ministry of Education data, since the adoption of the

exam reform, acceptance rate by exam increased dramatically. This is primarily because of the

oversupply of new universities/colleges, an issue that will not be discussed in this research essay.

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1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000Acceptance by exam 55604 61381 74346 71826 72471 75281Acceptance by application Exam acceptance rate* 44.31 49.24 60.18 60.45 59.83 57.7Application acceptance rate * ( ) indicate number accepted divided by number that actually turned in a request for admissions card

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006Acceptance by exam 75281 77450 78562 87059 88939 88991Acceptance by application 21645 20850 21588 23286Exam acceptance rate* 57.7 61.35 (80.41) (83.22) (87.05) (89.08)Application acceptance rate 65.63 62.33 67.02 66.89* ( ) indicate number accepted divided by number that actually turned in a request for admissions card

(Table 1: Higher Education Acceptance in Taiwan, Ministry of Education)

1.2.2 China

Similar to Taiwan, China is undergoing a series of National College Entrance Exam reforms.

According to Chinesenewsnet (Chinesenewsnet), in March of 2006, Fudan University in

Shanghai adopted a new application process. Instead of the National College Entrance Exam,

300 students (10%) will be accepted through an application process. The application process

includes a three-hour test, application essay, transcripts, recommendations, and awards received.

Additionally, a nearby Shanghai Communications University will also adopt a new application-

based application process. In all, it reflects a general trend toward multi-aspect college

application process as opposed to the one exam National College Entrance Exam method.

1.2.3 South Korea

In the meantime, South Korea is undergoing National College Entrance Exam reform also.

According to Chinabroadcast (Chinabroadcast), in August of 2004 South Korea adopted a new

college admissions plan slated for 2008. Similar to the other Asian countries mentioned, the plan

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incorporates a more comprehensive entrance criterion, taking into account not only the exam

score, but also the student’s performance in schools. This is again to address the problem

associated with high stake exam and to encourage participation in regular classrooms.

2 TAIWAN CASE STUDY

Due to the lack of data and research on the topic, the following section will focus on Taiwan as a

case study. First of all, although it would be interesting to study China, as it is the world’s

largest education system, data is unfortunately hard to come by. Additionally, although it would

be interesting to conduct a longitudinal study on the effects of the education reform toward

multiple admissions criteria, again the time frame since the change (2001) is too short for such

analysis. Therefore, the following section is limited to the study of stratification along the

dimensions of ethnic minority (2.1), girls (2.2), and low socioeconomic status (2.3), in the

context of the old National College Entrance Exam.

2.1 ETHNIC MINORITY

There are several different ways to categorize ethnic minorities in Taiwan. For one, there are the

aborigine people, who may reside in isolation in the mountains or intermingle with other ethnic

groups in the plains. Additionally, one may look at the different ethnic groups, such as the

mainlanders (ruling minority), minnans, and the hakkas. In the following section, studies about

ethnic minorities in Taiwan and their education status will be presented.

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In the Chen and Lin study, the authors considered mainlanders, minnans, and the hakkas. The

authors are interested in studying ethnic minorities in Taiwan because there are two divergent

streams of literatures about ethnic minorities in Taiwan. One stream claim that after controlling

for socioeconomic background, ethnic differences in years of schooling disappears. The other

stream claim that differences on continuation rate and high school track placement are present

(Chen and Lin, p. 1). In essence, the differences seem to be the granularity at which one looks at

ethnic minority stratification. Thus, the authors wish to revisit the topic using two different data

sources: the TSCS (Taiwan Social Change Survey) and the TEPS (Taiwan Education Panel

Survey). In particular, the TSCS allowed the authors to look at historical data (1994-1971 birth

cohort) and the TEPS allowed the authors to look at current data. In all, the authors

hypothesized that two theories might be at play: the Political Exclusion Thesis and the

Socioeconomic Reproduction Thesis (Chen and Lin, pp. 3-6).

Chen and Lin contend that if the Political Exclusion Thesis can be substantiated, then ethnic

minority stratification exists. What Political Exclusion Thesis basically said is that the ruling

minority mainlanders are using their political clout to help their education ambitions, at the

expense of the other ethnic minorities. On the other hand, those that contend ethnic minority

stratification does not exist may argue for the Socioeconomic Reproduction Thesis, which states

that differences in measures of education (access, attainment, etc) are simply due to the student’s

socioeconomic background.

Through TSCS and TEPS, Chen and Lin found that overall across the three ethnic groups year of

schooling increase along with birth years, and the differences between groups narrow across the

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years. Additionally, although there is a strong effect from parental education on educational

attainment, such effect decreases along with birth years (Chen and Lin, p. 13). Further, father’s

occupation is also one of the factors leading to group differences, but it is of a lesser effect than

parental education. Lastly, in regarding ethnic minority stratification, the authors conclude that

“the gross ethnic differences… are not explained by political exclusion thesis but socioeconomic

transfer thesis.” In essence, the authors found that stratification along ethnic lines are not

present, although stratification along socioeconomic lines seem to explain a great deal of the

differences among ethnic minority groups. Thus in relation to National College Entrance Exam,

this suggests that one should look at socioeconomic factors.

In continuing, lets look at aborigine population in Taiwan. In 1992, the Chinese population was

around 22 million people, while the aborigine population numbers around 400 thousand,

composing 1.82% of the total population. In the meantime, aborigine men out numbers

aborigine women by a ratio of 1.07:1 (Su and Chiang, p. 119). With these numbers in mind, the

authors then used national statistics to evaluate aborigine and education. In their study, the

authors found that the higher the education grouping (ie. high school, college, etc..), aborigines

compose less percentage of the group, which suggest ethnic minority stratification. Additionally,

even within the same education level, aborigine select vocational school more (Su and Chiang, p.

124). However, one interesting aspect that is related to girls is that in vocational school and

regular universities, aborigine woman outpace man (Su and Chiang, p. 125). The authors

suggest this is because aborigine man usually stops their schooling sooner and instead tries to

find work (Su and Chiang, p. 128). In all, the data suggest that if one considers ethnic lines,

either along with the aborigine distinction, or the mainlander/hakka/minnan distinction,

p. 11/19


observable differences can be seen in education attainment. However, as Chen and Lin suggest,

such stratifications might be more of a result of socioeconomic background, rather than ethnic

differences.

On the qualitative level, there are reasons to believe that ethnic differences matter. In Tsai’s

study, the author suggest that the problems that aborigine faces include 1) living in rural areas

where access to education is more limited, 2) teachers that choose to travel to rural areas to teach

does not understand aborigine culture, 3) there is pressure to find a job instead, and 4) lots of

aborigine children grew up in single family homes (Tsai, p. 110). Further, along the matters of

teacher training, there is a high turnover in teachers and the teachers are usually older, which

might affect their ability to adapt to the needs of the aborigine culture (Tsai, p. 115). Lastly,

there is the ethnic stereotype to contend with, which is a rather surprising factor (Tsai, p. 120).

Besides the common misconception of aborigines as “lazy” and “alcoholic”, the government’s

favorable policies toward the aborigines also spun animosity toward the ethnic minority group.

Su and Chiang describes such favorable policies as essentially “affirmative action”, which

includes adding points for the national college exam and even automatic admissions (Su and

Chiang, p. 129). Thus, in a sense the aborigines are “labeled”, often leading to stereotypes.

Across the three studies, several conclusions can be drawn. For one, the quantitative data seem

to suggest that there is not stratification along ethnic lines, once socioeconomic factors are

considered. But on the other hand, it is real that ethnic minorities are lagging behind in terms of

education (although Chen and Lin suggest that such education divide is decreasing).

Regardless, it seems likely that the aborigine populations face considerable difficulties when it

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comes to attaining education. But such difficulties might not be as significant as the

socioeconomic factors. Additionally, perhaps the government’s preferential treatment toward

ethnic minorities is in some ways neutralizing these difficulties. Thus, in order to look at

stratification, lets move on to girls.

2.2 GIRLS

Common in the Chinese culture, girls are thought to be less a contributor to families as boys, as

girls upon growing up tend to get married and move out of the family. Thus it seems likely that

there is stratification along gender lines. In this section, the study by Broaded will be presented,

in the context of gender and educational equality.

In the Broaded paper, the author first notes that about 20 percent more boys than girls are

enrolled in academic high schools, and about 18 percent more girls than boys are enrolled in

five-year specialized programs (Broaded, p. 42). By this data, it seems that by high school age,

there are already evidence of tracking that runs along gender lines, where the boys tend to attend

regular high schools while girls tend to undertake the more vocational oriented five-year

specialized program. Additionally, Broaded noted that much higher percentage of boys than

girls from lower-ability class groups intend to retake the entrance examination the following year

(Broaded, p. 42). This might have different justifications. For one, this suggest that failure

might be more acceptable for girls than boys, and that given failure, boys have to try hard to

rectify the failure. For another, this might suggest the willingness of parents to invest in boys, as

opposed to girls.

p. 13/19


In continuing, Broaded analyzed another measure of education: educational aspirations.

Surprisingly, the author found that household income does not affect educational aspirations. On

the other hand, “gender exerts a significant independent influence, with boys 1.4 times more

likely than girls to have strong academic aspirations” (Broaded, p. 45). This is a quite interesting

data, because while all the factors that are being thought of as significant before are related to

parents (parental education and occupation), this is one piece of evidence that even the students

themselves might have different aspirations.

Lastly, Broaded presented evidence that is directly related to high stake exams. Here, the author

noted a student’s past academic performances is a stronger predictor of high school placement

(Broaded, p. 46). However, even then, the influence of the student’s aspirations remains

important (Broaded, p. 47). These pieces of information seem to suggest a few conflicting ideas.

First, because the student’s past academic performance is such a strong deciding factor, it seems

that once the students are on the right path, then other factors such as ethnicity and

socioeconomic status will no longer matter. In another word, Broaded conclude, “ability

grouping (stemming from past academic experiences), seems to contribute to greater equality of

educational opportunity” (Broaded, p. 49). But this is not an entirely accurate assessment,

because it ignores the fact that those with higher socioeconomic backgrounds tend to be placed

in higher ability groups in the first place. The tracking system itself does not create educational

inequality, but it does propagate it. Additionally, gender differences did not disappear

completely within the tracking system. It plays through the student’s aspirations. So in another

word, the tracking system to a certain extent amplifies gender differences. This is one piece of

evidence that high stake exams have some effect on educational inequality.

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2.3 LOW SES POPULATION

The papers presented in the previous sections already hinted at the importance of family

backgrounds on various measures of education. Specifically, Chen and Lin noted that family

backgrounds such as parental education dominates over ethnic differences when it comes to

ethnic minority students. Additionally, Broaded concurred in the study that it works the same

way for academic aspirations (father who graduated from high school or college and mothers

who work in more professional role tend to have positive effects on aspirations) (Broaded, pp.

44-45).

But, Lucas presented a different analysis. Lucas examined a study conducted by the Republic of

China (Taiwan) Ministry of Education in 1975 (Lucas, p. 214). In that governmental study, it

was concluded, “Examination performance was most highly correlated with previous academic

achievement” and further “systematic bias in favor of participants from high-income families

was judged to be almost negligible” (Lucas, p. 215). The support for the findings lies in the

statistics that the middle and upper-middle class over-represent in terms of both the proportion of

students taking the exam and the proportion of student who are successful in the college entrance

exam. Furthermore, the lower-middle income students are even more successful than the

highest-income students (Lucas, p. 215). Thus, the conclusion is that “access to higher education

is much less highly correlated with socioeconomic status than might be expected” (Lucas, p.

216).

The findings by Lucas is interesting in that it presents evidence that these high stake exams

might actually be a counter to socioeconomic stratification in education. However, the study is

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limited in that it does not look at differences in success (ie. what type of universities the students

gain access to), it is entirely focused on access (as opposed to attainment), and it does not look at

other socioeconomic factors such as parental education. So it could be that the lower income

echelon students are gaining access to higher education, but only to lower echelon schools and

with lower attainment rates.

3 CONCLUSIONS

Through all the research papers presented above, several points can be made:

Ethnic minority stratification seem to be explained by socioeconomic factors

Gender differences in education is real

Socioeconomic factors might or might not lead to educational inequality, although it

seems that income does not while parental education & occupation does

In the context of high stake exams, it is hard to make any conclusions due to the lack of formal

research in this arena. However, it seems that two preliminary insights can be drawn: 1) when

considering previous education preparations, high stake exams by itself do not lead to education

inequality, and 2) high stake exams do propagate education stratifications that happens early on

in the students’ educational paths. Out of this, two ideologies can be implied: A) even though

high stake exams does not lead to educational inequality, it should do more to lessen the early

impact of student’s background on future educational attainment (affirmative action argument),

and B) the focus should be on early educational paths and the source of educational stratification

should be addressed. In either case, it is a fact that exam reform is happening and is moving

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away from high stake exams. So, it is prudent to continue to study its effects on educational

equity. There are suggestions that reliance on other criteria for admissions might be beneficial

for educational equity, in that those from disadvantaged backgrounds might be compensated. On

the other hand, open policy opens up potential for gaming, by the upper echelon of society.

Thus, it will be interesting that as data comes in, to analyze what is the final impact on the

composition of higher education student population.

4 REFERENCES

陳建州、劉正 (2003) “從多元入學方案談教育機會均等”.

發表於台灣社會學會年會.

張郁雯、林文瑛（民 92) “升學主義還是升學機會？升學壓力的社會意涵”. 教育心理學報, 35(2),167-182.

蘇建勳、江沛潔 (2000) “從官方統計資料檢視台灣原住民族教育”.

教育與社會研究, 1, 117.

蔡文山 (Tsai Wen-San) (2004) “從教育機會均等的觀點省思台灣原住民學生的教育現況與展望”. 教育與社會研究, 6, 109-144.

p. 17/19


C. Montgomery Broaded (1997) “The limits and possibilities of tracking: Some evidence

from Taiwan.” Sociology of Education. 70: 36-53.

Claudia Buchmann and Emily Hannum (2001) “Education and stratification in developing

Countries: A review of theories and research.” Annual Review of Sociology.

27: 77-102.

Vivien Wen-Chun Chen and Evelyn Yu-Ling Lin (2004) “Political Exclusion or Socioeconomic

Reproduction? Ethnic Educational Stratification in Taiwan.” Learning 2000 Project.

Kai-ming Cheng (2004) “Turning a bad master into a good servant: Reforming learning in

China.” In I. Rothberg (ed.) Balancing change and tradition in global education reform.

Washington, DC: Scarecrow Education.

Christopher J. Lucas (1982) “The Politics of National Development and Education in Taiwan.”

Comparative Politics, 14(2), 211-225.

(Chinabroadcast) “南韓開始改革高考制度” (2004). 中國國際廣播電臺.

http://big5.chinabroadcast.cn/gate/big5/gb.chinabroadcast.cn/

2201/2004/08/31/[email protected]

(ChinaTaiwan) “台灣高等教育”(2005) 秋日 (編輯). 中國台灣網.

p. 18/19

http://big5.chinabroadcast.cn/gate/big5/gb.chinabroadcast.cn/2201/2004/08/31/[email protected]

http://big5.chinabroadcast.cn/gate/big5/gb.chinabroadcast.cn/2201/2004/08/31/[email protected]


http://big5.chinataiwan.org/web/webportal/W5268084/Uzhanglx/A149977.html

(Chinesenewsnet)“中國高校試點自主招生:面試為主高考改革試破冰”(2006).

多維新聞.

http://www5.chinesenewsnet.com/MainNews/SocDigest/Technology/zxs_2006-03-

28_708772.shtml

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http://www5.chinesenewsnet.com/MainNews/SocDigest/Technology/zxs_2006-03-28_708772.shtml

http://www5.chinesenewsnet.com/MainNews/SocDigest/Technology/zxs_2006-03-28_708772.shtml

http://big5.chinataiwan.org/web/webportal/W5268084/Uzhanglx/A149977.html

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HIGH STAKE EXAMS AND STRATIFICATION IN …ldt.stanford.edu/~dtu05/files/ed309x_paper.doc · Web viewWhat is interesting about the National College Entrance Exam reform in Taiwan is