Academic Achievement Assessment

Principles and Methodology Huisheng

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Huisheng Tian · Zhichang Sun

Academic
Achievement
Assessment
Principles and Methodology
Academic Achievement Assessment
Huisheng Tian Zhichang Sun
•

Academic Achievement
Assessment
Principles and Methodology

123
Huisheng Tian Zhichang Sun
National Center for School Curriculum Institute of Educational Research
and Textbook Development Beijing
Ministry of Education China
Beijing
China

Translated by National Institute of Education Science, China

ISBN 978-3-662-56196-6 ISBN 978-3-662-56198-0 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-56198-0
Jointly published with Educational Science Publishing House, Beijing, China

The print edition is not for sale in China Mainland. Customers from China Mainland please order the
print book from: Educational Science Publishing House.

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This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publishers, whether the whole or part
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Preface

Improving the quality of education and promoting educational equity have become
a common goal throughout the world. People may have different views on what
quality in education is, but academic achievement of students is undoubtedly a
critical part of education quality. Therefore, to improve the quality of education, we
must pay attention to students’ academic achievement. The improvement of the
quality of education and promotion of educational equity are mutually reinforcing.
Investigating academic achievement of students has already been an important
means to enhance students’ academic level, improve teachers’ teaching efficacy,
promote school quality, and facilitate the balanced development of regional
education.
Assessment of student achievement is a highly professional, technical, and
policy-based task. It requires professional inspectors, specialized technology, and a
support system of institutionalized policy to guarantee reliable outcomes. This
implies a series of principles, and methods in the field of academic achievement
assessment, which need to be studied in depth.
It was in this context that the National Social Science Foundation in 2006 carried
out the “11th Five-Year” national key project (education) entitled “A survey of
academic achievement assessment in primary and middle school students”
(No. AHA060008, project leader: Tian Huisheng). In this project, we performed
empirical investigations and explored theoretical concepts, principles and methods
in assessment of student achievement. This book is one of the important results
of the project.
This book consists of an introduction into assessment of student achievement, an
international comparison of academic achievement assessment, and an overview
of the theoretical system and practical strategies toward the assessment of students'
achievement. The introduction describes the historical development and basic
framework of academic achievement assessment. This framework serves as a
reading guide for readers.
Based on domestic and overseas’ data, cases, and examples, the second part of
this book provides a detailed description and comparison from an international
point of view of organizations in the USA, Japan, and other countries in the field of

v
vi Preface

academic achievement assessment, followed by a systematic summary of both the

achievements and existing difficulties in this area in China, and providing a
description of the characteristics of academic achievement assessment systems in
foreign countries and trends in this field abroad. Since research in modern
assessment of student achievement originated in Western countries, the accumu-
lated research has yielded important theoretical resources and practical strategies
which may guide the development of localized academic achievement assessment
for China.
The third part of this book is the main focus of this survey. It provides a detailed
description of fundamental research in the area of the assessment of academic
achievement—axiology and epistemology, which has groundbreaking value.
A survey of relevant literature in the field of educational psychology and mea-
surement theory provides a direct theoretical basis to the practical operation of the
assessment of student achievement. Subsequently, a description of the SOLO tax-
onomy directly leads to the practical setup of the target system and test techniques,
questionnaire design as well as the organization and implementation of academic
achievement assessment. Especially, research on the target system and test tech-
niques creatively raised questions that need to be further investigated. Finally, this
book answers questions about education policy and educational practice, which may
lead to the promotion of quality in education and educational equity.
This book is a product of the collaborative effort of researchers of the National
Institute of Education Sciences (NIES), China. It embodies the collective wisdom of
our team. The specific division of work of each chapter is as follows: The preface
was written by Huisheng Tian and Zhichang Sun. Chapter 1 was written by Zhiyan
Shan, Chap. 2 by Buhe Zhang, Chap. 3 by Chunrong Ren and Xijie Yang, and
Chap. 4 by Yajuan Shi and Zhichang Sun. Chapters 5 and 6 were written by
Zhichang Sun; Chap. 7 by Zhiyan Shan and Sulan Qing; Chap. 8 by Zhiyan Shan;
Chap. 9 by Yuqiang Zhang; Chap. 10 by Zhiyan Shan; Chap. 11 by Xiaomei Zuo;
Xijie Yang, and Chunrong Ren; and Chap. 12 by Zhichang Sun. Huisheng Tian and
Zhichang Sun acted as the editors of this book. The translation work was supported
by the Department for International Exchange of the NIES. Meng Qingtao, Chen
Guibao, Wang Tingting, and among others translated the Chinese text into English.
Wang Yan acted as the editor of the English edition of this book. As the assessment
of student achievement is a new and difficult research topic to us, there might be
mistakes and deficiencies in this book. Therefore, all comments and criticism are
greatly welcomed.
The publication of this work was warmly supported by Educational Science
Publishing House. We appreciate the great effort of Dong Li (editor in chief), Can
Liu (Director of the Editorial Department of Teacher Education), and Chunyan Chi
(executive editor) for their valuable contribution in the editorial and production
process. We want to express our sincere thanks to all of them.

Beijing, China Huisheng Tian

Zhichang Sun
Contents

Part I Introduction to Academic Achievement Assessment

1 Historical Development of Academic Achievement Assessment . . . . 3
1 Early Stages of Academic Achievement Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 Origination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Maturities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2 Evolution of Academic Achievement Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.1 Greater Scale of Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 New Understandings of Education Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2 Overview of Academic Achievement Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 15
1 Purpose of Academic Achievement Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 15
1.1 Essence, Direct Goal, and Ultimate Goal of Academic
Achievement Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 15
1.2 Significance of Conducting Academic Achievement
Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 19
2 Content and Technical Considerations of Academic Achievement
Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.1 Concept Analysis of Academic Achievement . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.2 Content of Academic Achievement Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3 Technical Review of Academic Achievement Assessment . . . 23
3 Organizer of Academic Achievement Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.1 Historical and Realistic Views of Assessment Organizers . . . . 25
3.2 China’s Organizer System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4 Analysis and Application of Assessment Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.1 Analysis of Assessment Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.2 Application of Assessment Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

vii
viii Contents

Part II International Comparison of Academic Achievement

Assessment
3 Assessment Systems of International Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
1 PISA System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
1.1 Introduction to PISA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
1.2 Organization and Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
1.3 Test Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
1.4 PISA’s Analytic and Reporting Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
1.5 PISA’s Studies on Equity in Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
2 IEA’s Assessment System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
2.1 IEA Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
2.2 TIMSS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
2.3 PIRLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
2.4 Exemplary Value of TIMSS and PIRLS for China’s
Academic Achievement Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
4 Assessment Systems of Foreign Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
1 NAEP’s Assessment System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
1.1 Overview of NAEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
1.2 NAEP Mathematics Assessments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
1.3 NAEP Science Assessments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
1.4 Analyzing and Reporting NAEP Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
2 Japan’s Academic Ability Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
2.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
2.2 Policy and Organizational Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
2.3 Assessment Frameworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
2.4 Result Analysis and Reporting System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
5 Comparison of Assessment Systems and Its Implications . . . . . . . . 165
1 Features and Development Trend of Foreign Assessment
Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
2 Policy Support and Implementation System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
2.1 Features of Policy Support and Implementation Systems
of International Assessments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
2.2 Features of Policy Support and Implementation Systems
Within Individual Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
3 Framework and Instrument Development System . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
3.1 Features of Assessment Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
3.2 Features of Assessment Instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
3.3 Features of Questionnaire Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Contents ix

4 Result Analysis and Reporting System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

4.1 Commonalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
4.2 Different Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
5 Development Trend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
6 Status Quo and Issues of China’s Assessment System . . . . . . . . . . 184
7 Development and Achievement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
7.1 Status Quo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
7.2 Achievement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
8 Challenges and Countermeasures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Part III Theoretical System and Practical Strategy of Academic

Achievement Assessment
6 The Philosophical Foundation of Academic Achievement
Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
1 The Axiological Foundation of Academic Achievement
Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
1.1 Value and the Axiology of Academic Achievement
Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
1.2 Mechanisms for Realizing Value Orientation
of Academic Achievement Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
2 The Epistemological Foundation of Academic Achievement
Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
2.1 The Epistemological Characteristic of Academic
Achievement Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
2.2 The Realization of Epistemological Characteristic
of Academic Achievement Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
7 Educational Psychology Basis of Academic Achievement
Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
1 Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
1.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
1.2 Basic Principle and Application of Taxonomy of
Educational Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
1.3 Overall Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
2 SOLO Taxonomy Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
2.1 The Formation and Main Contents of SOLO Taxonomy
Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
2.2 Test Tool Development and Test Result Analysis Using
SOLO Taxonomy Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
2.3 Evaluation of SOLO Taxonomy Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
x Contents

8 Metrology Basis of Academic Achievement Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

1 Classical Test Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
1.1 Theoretical System of Classical Test Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
1.2 Advantages and Limitations of Classical Test Theory . . . . . . 252
1.3 Role of Classical Test Theory in Guiding Test
Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
2 Item Response Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
2.1 Basic Theoretical Hypothesis of Item Response Theory . . . . . 255
2.2 Advantages and Limitations of Item Response Theory . . . . . . 257
2.3 Role of Item Response Theory in Guiding Test
Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
3 Generalizability Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
3.1 Basic Framework of Generalizability Theory
(Generalizability Theory and Its Application Prospects
2003) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
3.2 Advantages and Limitations of Generalizability Theory . . . . . 262
3.3 Role of Generalizability Theory in Guiding Test
Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
9 Goal System and Test Techniques of Academic Achievement
Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
1 Goal System of Academic Achievement Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
1.1 Theoretical Foundations of the Goal System of Academic
Achievement Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
1.2 The Establishment of Goal Systems of Academic
Achievement Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
2 Test Techniques of Academic Achievement Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
2.1 Test Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
2.2 Pretest of Test Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
10 Questionnaire Design for Academic Achievement Assessment . . . . . 293
1 Questionnaire Design for Student Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
1.1 Design of Questions Related to Family Economic–Social
Background of Student . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
1.2 Design of Questions Relevant to the Factors that Impact
School Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
1.3 Design of Questions on School Atmosphere Perceived
by Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
1.4 Design of Questions Relating to Students’ Out-School
Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Contents xi

2 Questionnaire Design for School Assessment (National Institute

of Education Policy 2006) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
2.1 The Relations Between School and External Society
Reflected by School Assessment Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . 301
2.2 The Internal School Relations Reflected by School
Assessment Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
11 Organization and Implementation of Academic Achievement
Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
1 Organization and Testing System of Academic Achievement
Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
1.1 Establishment of the Three-Level Organizations
of Academic Achievement Survey and the Function Display
of Professional Intermediary Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
1.2 Sampling of Academic Achievement Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
1.3 Organization and Implementation of Academic
Achievement Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
2 Analysis and Feedback on Results of Academic Achievement
Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
2.1 Analysis on Results of Academic Achievement Survey . . . . . 320
2.2 Analysis Report on Results of Academic Achievement
Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
3 Analysis and Feedback of Survey Results of Academic
Achievement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
3.1 Data Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
3.2 Data Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
3.3 Writing and Feedback of a Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
12 Academic Achievement Surveys and the Improvement
of Education and Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
1 Academic Achievement Surveys and the Adjustment
of Macro Education Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
1.1 Academic Achievement Surveys and Reforms
of Education Management Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
1.2 Academic Achievement Surveys and the Adjustment
of Curriculum Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
1.3 Academic Achievement Surveys and the Improvement
of Quality of Education and Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
1.4 Academic Achievement Surveys and the Promotion
of Equity in Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
xii Contents

2 Academic Achievement Surveys and Regional and School

Education and Teaching Reforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
2.1 Academic Achievement Surveys and Regional
Education and Teaching Reforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
2.2 Academic Achievement Surveys and School Education
and Teaching Reforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
 Part I
Introduction to Academic Achievement
Assessment
Chapter 1
Historical Development of Academic
Achievement Assessment

Academic achievement refers to students’ learning outcome of a school curriculum.

It is a crucial indicator of education quality. Academic achievement assessment is
an essential means by which education quality is evaluated and guaranteed. Since
the beginning of school education, there has been examination of student perfor-
mance, a form of academic achievement assessment to some extent. But in the
context of modern education, academic achievement assessment has specific fea-
tures of its own. This specificity lies in its close connection with people’s efforts to
promote equity and quality in education, to adjust education policy, as well as to
make classroom interventions.
This chapter examines the history of academic achievement assessment.
Learning about the developmental processor academic achievement assessment
helps understand its nature and its significance in improving quality and equity in
education.

1 Early Stages of Academic Achievement Assessment

1.1 Origination

In a broad sense, academic achievement assessment dates back to 2000 BC when

China started selecting government officials by examinations. In the fifth century
BC, teachers in Athens included evaluative questions in their pedagogical toolkit,
which was by and large another form of academic achievement assessment (Husén
and Postlethwaite). Still another example was China’s keju system (imperial
examination system), which came into being in the Sui Dynasty, and was intro-
duced to the West and later evolved into its civil service examination system,
leaving a profound impact on world history.

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany and Educational Science Publishing House 2018 3

H. Tian and Z. Sun, Academic Achievement Assessment,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-56198-0_1
4 1 Historical Development of Academic Achievement Assessment

Modern academic achievement assessment originated in the USA. In 1845, the

Boston School Committee headed by Horace Mann conducted a set of written tests
on student performance, later known as the “Boston Survey.” In two consecutive
years, they administered tests on a large number of students using printed test
papers to evaluate the quality of school education in Boston. The tests covered
definitions, grammar, handwriting, geography, American history, natural philoso-
phy, astronomy, and fine arts. Although the results were not applied to the
improvement of student learning, these tests were regarded as a prototype of aca-
demic achievement assessment.
Between 1887 and 1898, Joseph Rice of the USA assessed the spelling ability of
33,000 students in a large urban school district. Drawing upon the results of the
survey, Rice argued that although much emphasis was laid on the teaching of
spelling, students did not make substantial progress in their learning. This survey
was considered an educational assessment officially administered for the first time
(Husén and Postlethwaite). Moreover, the survey was designed such that infor-
mation about students’ academic achievement could be obtained in a unified and
standardized format, suggesting that the standardized test was beginning to take
shape.
Academic achievement assessment has close ties with psychological measure-
ment, as it originated from, among others, psychometrics and educational mea-
surement. In 1895, A. Binet and V. Henri developed a set of intelligence tests. Later
in 1905, the renowned Binet-Simon Scale on intelligence testing came into being.
The following years saw a rapid development of academic achievement assessment,
with principles of psychometrics as its theoretical underpinnings. In 1909, Edward
Thorndike invented the unit of measurement used for scale designing based on the
principle of “equidistance” in statistics and created standardized scales on hand-
writing, spelling, composition, etc., thus pushing forward academic achievement
assessment in terms of quantifiability, objectivity, and standardization. After that
there emerged a variety of standardized testing tools, making it possible to conduct
large-scale academic achievement assessment.
Nevertheless, modern academic achievement assessment was accompanied by
two defects since its origination. On the one hand, up until Ralph W. Tyler
established the concept “educational evaluation,” academic achievement assess-
ment tested only students’ memory of textbook knowledge rather than their
advanced intellectual skills. On the other hand, the measurement scales, designed
on the theoretical basis of normal distribution or Gaussian distribution, were used to
differentiate between students’ academic achievement to the best extent possible
(Husén and Postlethwaite), meaning that such assessment was intended to dis-
criminate between and select students rather than promote their learning. Due to the
two defects, the assessment at this stage was still an embryo of academic
achievement assessment and did not fit its strict definition.
By introducing the concept “educational evaluation,” Tyler differentiated edu-
cational evaluation from educational measurement, a milestone for the development
of both educational evaluation and academic achievement assessment. As afore-
mentioned, before Tyler academic achievement assessment measured only students’
1 Early Stages of Academic Achievement Assessment 5

memory of knowledge and failed to test their advanced intellectual skills. But Tyler
proved that measuring advanced intellectual skills was nothing like measuring
knowledge, and if building advanced intellectual skills was an objective of edu-
cation, the skills had to be measured directly. Tyler also held that the
norm-referenced tests developed in the early twentieth century were normally
unable to evaluate the degree to which educational objectives were achieved. Since
norm-referenced tests were originated from intelligence tests designed to compare
and rank test takers, they were of little use in telling students’ learning progress.
Criterion-referenced tests, by contrast, could provide much help in assessing stu-
dents’ academic progress (Chen 1999). In short, by setting up a “criterion-based”
model, Tyler differentiated academic achievement assessment from selective tests
and established its basic principles. Till now, “criterion-based” tests still have an
important place in academic achievement assessment.

1.2 Maturities

In the 1950s and 1960s, academic achievement assessment came to its maturity
stage thanks to a number of supportive conditions. First, along with the universal
access to elementary education, especially to compulsory education around the
world, people became more and more concerned with education quality, regarding
it as a decisive factor in determining the success/failure of education. Second, the
advancement of theories and techniques in educational evaluation facilitated the
implementation of academic achievement assessment. In addition, as a major party
in modern education, the government began to tangible measures to ensure edu-
cation quality. With all these favorable conditions in place, academic achievement
assessment had become an irreversible historical trend.

1.2.1 Focus on Education Quality

Since the 1950s, focus on quality became a global phenomenon in the field of
education. In 1957, the Soviet launch of the first-ever man-made satellite put the US
government into shock. Deep reflection brought a national consensus that the
education quality of the USA was falling behind. In 1958, the US President signed
into law the National Defense Education Act, claiming to strengthen science, math,
and modern foreign language programs in schools. Specifically, the Act required
upgrading the content of courses, enriching reference materials, providing schools
with modern facilities such as laboratories, audiovisual equipment, and computers,
speeding up the development of foreign language teaching centers, improving
teacher quality, and promoting “gifted education” by encouraging academically
gifted secondary students to pursue higher education. More than 800 million US
dollars worth of funding was authorized to support education development and
improve education quality.
6 1 Historical Development of Academic Achievement Assessment

After the National Defense Education Act, the USA went into a large-scale
curriculum reform, i.e., the structuralism reform initiated by the renowned educator
Jerome S. Bruner, and later to be influential worldwide. The new curriculum laid
emphasis on early education to tap children’s intelligence potential. Science and
technology courses were moved to lower grades level by level so as to narrow the
gap between high- and primary-level knowledge. The course structure,
inquiry-based learning, and discovery learning were also emphasized.
In 1965, the US Congress passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
(ESEA). In line with the National Defence Education Act, ESEA was also devoted
to raising education quality. As mandated in the Act, the goal of primary education
was to teach general knowledge of science and culture so as to lay the groundwork
for students to take specialized education in the future, and the goal of secondary
education was to lay the foundation for training future experts and scholars, to teach
scientific research methods, and to prepare students for higher education. In addi-
tion, the Act took a great step forward in promoting equity in education by man-
dating white and black students going to the same school and by taking measures to
assist children disadvantaged in learning.
Following the US education reform, many countries undertook reforms to raise
education quality. The former West Germany promoted exemplary teaching. Japan
proposed universalizing senior high education and enhancing education in science
and technology in its 1960 Income Doubling Plan. The former Soviet Union, in its
1966 education reform, endeavored to increase students’ general and technical
knowledge and put a top priority on improving the quality of expert training.

1.2.2 Development of Theories and Techniques in Educational

Evaluation

In the 1930s, by putting forth the concept “educational evaluation” and establishing
principles of “criterion-based” evaluation, Tyler laid important theoretical and
technical foundations for educational evaluation, a prerequisite for academic
achievement assessment. Besides, the emergence and development of theories
including Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives, M. Scriven’s conception of
formative evaluation, and item response theory all provided theoretical and tech-
nical support for academic achievement assessment.
In 1956, Benjamin Bloom (renowned educator and student of Tyler) and his
allies published Taxonomy of Educational Objectives Book 1: Cognitive Domain. In
1964, Bloom and A. J. Harrow published Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
Book 2: Affective Domain. In 1965 and 1972, E. J. Simpson and Harrow published
their research findings in the psychomotor domain. With their taxonomy of edu-
cational objectives, these scholars went deeper and more specific on the basis of
Tyler’s ideas. They classified the cognitive process into knowledge, comprehen-
sion, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation, and that in the affective
domain into receiving, responding, valuing, organizing, and characterizing. Each of
these classes was categorized into subclasses. For instance, comprehension
1 Early Stages of Academic Achievement Assessment 7

consisted of translation, interpretation, and extrapolation. The classification system

offered a guideline for test tool development and raised the scientific level of
academic achievement assessment.
The differentiation between summative evaluation and formative evaluation also
contributed to the maturity of academic achievement assessment. M. Scriven,
another important figure in the study of educational evaluation, coined the terms
formative and summative evaluation in 1967. For Scriven, formative evaluation
was employed to diagnose and modify teaching and learning activities while
summative evaluation was used to rank and select students (Husén and
Postlethwaite). Besides, he proposed “goal-free evaluation,” which the evaluator
conducted without being constrained with predetermined objectives. Goal-free
evaluation attempted to observe and measure all actual outcomes of education,
especially unintended effects or impacts (Chen 1999). Later on, L. J. Cronbach
defined evaluation as the process of systematically gathering information for
decision making (Husén and Postlethwaite). The above theoretical progress led to
rapid development of educational evaluation and made it possible to distinguish
academic achievement assessment from educational evaluation.
In the 1960s, item response theory gradually matured and came into practice.
Item response theory hypothesizes that a student’s response to an item (test item) is
a mathematical function of two parameters—the student’s location on a continuum
and random error. The theory is able to provide technical support for diagnosing
student learning as it places students’ individual trait (such as ability) and test items
on the same dimension, and offers a clear interpretation of the probability of scale
spacing (Husén and Postlethwaite). Item response theory aligns with the ideas of
formative evaluation and provides measurement and statistical techniques to aca-
demic achievement assessment.

1.2.3 Governmental Efforts to Ensure Education Quality

Modern education is part of a nation’s sovereign power and would not have been
possible without the government fulfilling its obligation. Likewise, academic
achievement assessment would not have matured and prevailed as a means of
guaranteeing and raising education quality if not for the support and participation of
the government.
Historically, academic achievement assessment started with individuals’ efforts,
such as American scholars Joseph Rice and Edward Thorndike’s assessments, and
Japanese scholar Junichi Kubota’s assessment of primary school students’ academic
ability in mathematics in 1951 (Tanaka 2011a, b, c). Yet the large scale of modern
education and the enormous efforts and sophisticated techniques required for
assessment determined that large-scale academic achievement assessment was too
complex and difficult for the capacity of any individual and could only be realized
with governmental efforts.
It was against such background that in the 1950s and 1960s, the field of aca-
demic achievement assessment in a real sense took shape, marked by the birth of
8 1 Historical Development of Academic Achievement Assessment

the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) of the USA and the
establishment of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational
Achievement (IEA).
NAEP came into existence in the 1960s when the federal government had an
urgent need to examine the quality of US basic education, and to strengthen
intervention and support in education. In 1964, F. Keppel set up the Exploratory
Committee on Assessing the Progress of Education (ECAPE) to carry out national
assessment. In the spring of 1969, with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation,
ECAPE conducted assessments in science, civics, and writing. In July 1969, the
administration of the national assessments was transferred to the Education
Committee of the States, which received two million US dollars worth of funding
from the US Department of Education. Ever since then, the National Assessment of
Educational Progress was officially established (Vinovskis 1998).
IEA was founded in 1959. It is an intergovernmental organization devoted to
large-scale, cross-national assessments on student achievement. Since the 1960s,
IEA conducted extensive research and gained large amounts of data of students’
academic achievement, attitudes, and contributing factors. IEA’s studies include its
1964 and 1980 international studies of mathematics achievement in 12 and 18
countries, respectively, and the six-subject survey in 1970 and 1971 (in 8 and 19
countries, respectively) on science education, reading comprehension, literature
education, civic education, English as a foreign language, and French as a foreign
language (Husén and Postlethwaite).
Around mid-1970s, most member countries of the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) had established the national academic
achievement monitoring system or other mechanisms for the same purpose. These
countries and regions included England, Welsh, France, Holland, Spain, Scotland,
and Sweden, among others (Husén and Postlethwaite). Though these monitoring
mechanisms or systems were not exactly mature, they officially marked the
establishment of the field of academic achievement assessment.
To summarize, the development of academic achievement assessment as part of
educational evaluation has close ties with global concern with education quality,
development of educational evaluation theories and techniques, and governmental
efforts to ensure education quality. It could be said that the three forces led to the
maturity of academic achievement assessment in the 1950s and 1960s.

2 Evolution of Academic Achievement Assessment

The 1980s ushered the world into a wave of education reform that continued into
the twenty-first century, along with which academic achievement assessment
enjoyed unprecedented development: Assessments were conducted in more subject
areas and became more regular; and new understandings of education quality had
2 Evolution of Academic Achievement Assessment 9

emerged, with a focus on monitoring and raising quality, promoting balanced

development, and pursuing both equity and excellence. Academic achievement
assessment was entering a new stage of development.

2.1 Greater Scale of Development

Having matured in the 1950s and 1960s and developed through the 1970s, aca-
demic achievement assessment went into a stage of rapid development in the 1980s.
Assessments by international organizations grew large in scale and regular in fre-
quency. Some countries set up their assessment systems and started conducting
assessments periodically. Meanwhile, academic achievement assessment and edu-
cation reform reinforced each other and developed concurrently, forming a globally
notable phenomenon in education development.
Beginning from the 1980s, a series of assessments carried out by IEA drew
attention and participation of many countries, such as the Second International
Mathematics Study (1980–1982), the Second International Science Study (1982–
1986), the Written Composition Study (1984–1985), the Reading Literacy Study
(1990–1991), the Computers in Education Study (1987–1993), as well as the
Classroom Environment Study, the Pre-primary Project. Since 1995, IEA has been
periodically carrying out the Trends in International Mathematics and Science
Study (TIMSS) to look into students’ mathematics and science achievements, and
the contributing factors including education policy and teaching practice. Every
4 years, TIMSS data were collected from students at grade four and grade eight
(mostly 9- and 13-year-olds, respectively) in countries around the world. Another
assessment series, the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS),
has been conducted worldwide in five-year intervals to monitor the changes over
time in children’s reading achievement. IEA’s assessments have attracted an
increasing number of countries. For instance, 35 countries and regions participated
in PIRLS in 2001.
Another equally notable assessment is the Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA), a study established in 1997 by OECD to evaluate students’
ability of survival in their future life (Jiang 2008). Conducted every three years with
nine years being a circle, PISA collected data of 15-year-olds’ performance on
reading, mathematics, and science. It was first carried out in 2000 and has since
then attracted more and more countries and regions, with 42 countries and regions
in 2000, 43 in 2003, 57 in 2006, and 69 in 2009.
Since 1983, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in the USA started planning
for the International Assessment of Educational Progress (IAEP). In January 1989,
ETS conducted international comparative studies on mathematics and science
(physics, chemistry, biology, and geography) achievement of 9- and 13-year-old
students in 21 countries and regions. In 1991, ETS carried out a large-scale edu-
cational achievement study. More than 20 countries and regions participated in it
(Hlebowitsh 1997). China participated in both the 1989 and 1991 studies.
10 1 Historical Development of Academic Achievement Assessment

As assessments carried out by international organizations developed in large

scale, assessments by individual countries also made constant improvement and
became increasingly influential. In 1988, NAEP was once again authorized by the
US Congress to conduct comparative assessment of student academic achievement
of different states (Husén and Postlethwaite 2006). After establishing the national
curriculum standards in the 1988 education reform, the UK set up the Qualification
and Curriculum Authority (QCA) in 1997 to ensure education quality from the
national level through assessing student academic achievement, inspecting school
teaching quality, and monitoring the implementation of the national curriculum.
Following its curriculum reform for the twenty-first century, Japan started regular
studies on the implementation of the new curriculum in 1994 and has been annually
conducting the “National Assessment of Academic Ability” since 2007. Besides,
other countries including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Brazil also started
similar programs to monitor education quality.
Meanwhile, some countries also made efforts to set up assessment programs at
local levels. The USA had state-level assessments besides NAEP. Australia’s
academic achievement assessments were conducted at four levels: the international
level, national level, state level, and school district level. Japan also conducted
four-level assessments—international, national, prefecture, and school district.
These assessments formed a national monitoring system on education quality,
which gradually took shape with the rapid development of academic achievement
assessment since the 1980s.
Since its emergence, academic achievement assessment has been concurrently
developing and mutually reinforcing with education reform. For instance, the US
education reform since the 1980s had close ties with IEA assessments. IEA’s first
and second international mathematics and science studies found US students’
competence in many areas worse than before (Husén and Postlethwaite 2006),
leading to the publication of the 1983 report A Nation at Risk: Educational Reform
Imperative by the US National Commission on Excellence in Education and the
vigorous reform efforts that followed. The reform strengthened teaching of math-
ematics, English, science, civics, and computer science, and raised standards and
requirements of education quality. PISA study had even stronger influence. One
example is the “PISA shock” when German students scored below the average level
of 32 OECD countries in many subject areas in the PISA 2000 study, touching off
nationwide worries of the German and the ensuing reform in compulsory education.
In 2003, the German Ministry of Education and Research started the “Future
Education and Care” program, which planned to invest four billion euros before
2007 to convert one-third of the schools in Germany into full-time schools so as to
provide better schooling for primary and secondary students and improve inter-
national competitiveness in basic education. In addition, emulating the PISA
standards, Germany developed the school education quality standards of its own,
set up special authorities to monitor education quality, and made efforts to conduct
teacher training and improve teaching practice (Xu 2006).
To sum up, academic achievement assessment developed rapidly in terms of
scale since the 1980s—international organizations conducted more and more
2 Evolution of Academic Achievement Assessment 11

large-scale assessments; many countries set up their own assessment systems;

assessments and reforms reinforced each other and together set the trend of edu-
cational development.

2.2 New Understandings of Education Quality

Another aspect of the development of academic achievement assessment since the

1980s is the constant update of the understanding of education quality: There was
increasing recognition of the significance of educational objectives that assessments
should be for the benefit of learning; lifelong learning and student-growth-oriented
education became prevalent; the ideas of “criterion-based” and “goal-free” evalu-
ation were put into practice; both “excellence” and “equity” came to be considered
as criteria for evaluating education quality.
In the late 1980s, principles guiding the scale design of testing and achievement
measurement were strongly contested, and the normal distribution theory on which
many measure scales were based also met unprecedented challenge. The focus of
assessments was gradually transferred to measuring changes in students’ learning
outcome and the degree to which they obtained the target achievement.
Traditionally, it was believed that tests were used to measure students’ performance
for the time being and scales were used to evaluate students’ abilities relative to
each other. The new achievement assessment took it to another level by measuring
the degree to which students have reached the target academic level defined in
curriculum standards and by looking into the changes of students’ achievement over
time (Husén and Postlethwaite 2006).
There was a growing conviction that educational objectives should be
all-inclusive in academic achievement assessment. For instance, IAEP’s assess-
ments in mathematics categorized students’ cognitive ability into three levels:
conceptual understanding, procedural knowledge, and problem solving. The
inclusion of problem-solving ability was for the purpose of assessing students’
high-level intelligence skills, an effort to comprehensively incorporate educational
objectives into assessment. Also to this end, many large-scale academic achieve-
ment assessments tried various means to measure students’ hands-on abilities. IEA,
for instance, emphasized the testing of students’ hands-on skills in each of its
science education studies. Complex and authentic tasks were used in the tests to
measure students’ hands-on abilities and high-level thinking abilities (Zhang 2002).
NAEP also made efforts in this respect. In its 1990 mathematics assessment, stu-
dents were required to use mathematical tools such as calculator, ruler, and pro-
tractor. Its 1992 reading assessments included long passages and open-ended
questions that took in-depth comprehension, and the test for fourth-graders included
oral reading. In its 1992 writing assessments, portfolios of students’ best writing
were collected to be part of the assessment (Husén and Postlethwaite 2006).
Besides, some assessment programs including PISA added elements in question-
naires and test items that looked into students’ affects and values. These practices
12 1 Historical Development of Academic Achievement Assessment

evoked controversies, but it was a good effort taken to accommodate educational

objectives more comprehensively.
Another progress in the understanding of education quality lies in that the idea of
lifelong learning and student-growth-oriented education was increasingly incorpo-
rated into assessment. IEA’s PIRLS emphasized skills crucial for students’ future
development such as the ability of “searching for and using materials.” PISA
assessments gave a more prominent expression to the notion of lifelong learning.
PISA believed that lifelong learning was indispensable for one to survive in modern
society, and the abilities to utilize knowledge and skills, to conduct effective
communication, and to discover, analyze, and solve problems in various situations
were essential “literacy” one should seek to acquire over his lifetime (Yang 2011).
Besides, PISA emphasized that academic achievement assessment should be for the
purpose of promoting students’ growth in the long run. Rather than testing students’
memory of knowledge, it focused on measuring their ability of using knowledge
they’ve learned to solve problems, their degree of participating in learning activi-
ties, and their engagement and sustained interest in learning. Such abilities are
essential qualities for one to survive in and adapt to the future society.
As aforementioned, Tyler’s conception of educational objectives was the
foundation for academic achievement assessment to mature and the basis against
which evaluation was conducted. As the significance of lifelong learning and stu-
dents’ sustainable growth got increasing recognition, academic achievement
assessment had progressed to a new level that combined “criterion-based” assess-
ments with “goal-free” assessments. “Goal-free” here is not strictly the same ascribe
had it. Rather, it describes the timely modification to educational objectives as time
changes. A typical example of such “goal-free” assessment is Japan’s “National
Assessment of Academic Ability.” Previous assessments in Japan focused on
“mastery of knowledge.” Drawing upon PISA studies, the “National Assessment of
Academic Ability” added “flexible application” items that test students’ ability of
flexibly applying knowledge to solve problems, so as to foster abilities required for
lifelong learning and for survival. Since these abilities were not prioritized in the
curriculum objectives at that time, adding “flexible application” items had no
explicit ground (Takashina 2007a, b, c, d). However, the “National Assessment of
Academic Ability” refused to be constrained by predetermined learning targets.
Instead, it refined the curriculum and educational objectives through innovation in
assessment, a good case in which “criterion-based” and “goal-free” assessments
combine and reinforce each other.
Starting from its emergence, academic achievement assessment focused on
“excellence” in conceiving education quality. In the twenty-first century, a new
understanding that took both “excellence” and “equity” into consideration has
clearly taken shape. In the 1980s, “excellence” and “brilliance” were the keywords
in the USA, until in 2001 the No Child Left behind Act was passed, bringing equity
into the picture. Japan’s “National Assessment of Academic Ability” gave equal
weight to high ability and education equity. PISA study found strong positive
correlation between “excellence” and “equity.” Accordingly, it accommodated both
excellence and equity into its new criteria in assessing the basic education quality of
2 Evolution of Academic Achievement Assessment 13

a country/region, rather than measuring “excellence” alone (Zhang et al. 2011).

This is yet another major progress of academic achievement assessment regarding
its understanding of education quality.
In summary, since the 1980s the overall trend of academic achievement
assessment is characterized by ensuring both quality and equity of education,
encouraging lifelong learning, and promoting students’ all-round development.
These ideas have an enduring impact on assessment activities, bringing academic
achievement assessment into a new level of development.

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Publishing House.
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Beijing: Peking University Press.
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Chapter 2
Overview of Academic Achievement
Assessment

As a professional activity, academic achievement assessment carries special

implication and significance. It centers on why to conduct the assessment, what to
assess, what techniques and methods to employ, who to organize and implement the
assessment, and how to use assessment results to improve teaching activities. In
other words, study on academic achievement assessment shall address the following
issues: the purpose, content, techniques and methods, organizer, and application of
assessment findings.

1 Purpose of Academic Achievement Assessment

Humans are purposive. Every human activity has its purpose, and academic
achievement assessment is no exception. The purpose and significance of academic
achievement assessment are determined by its qualitative prescription, which in turn
determines its direct goal and ultimate goal.

1.1 Essence, Direct Goal, and Ultimate Goal of Academic

Achievement Assessment

1.1.1 Essence

The essence, or qualitative prescription, of academic achievement assessment lies in

the development characteristics of human society and is derived from the com-
parison with other forms of student evaluation.

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany and Educational Science Publishing House 2018 15

H. Tian and Z. Sun, Academic Achievement Assessment,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-56198-0_2
16 2 Overview of Academic Achievement Assessment

Innate Trait—Raising Education Quality

Academic achievement assessment is a direct product of the endeavor to raise

education quality. “Quantity,” i.e., universalization of education, was initially the
priority of modern education. When universal access to education reached a certain
level, the issue of quality came to prominence. Since the 1950s quality improve-
ment has drawn increasing attention, coming to be regarded as the lifeline of
modern education (Wang 1999). Therefore, it was no coincidence that academic
achievement assessment, a key measure for monitoring education quality, devel-
oped and matured globally during that period. The situation was similar in the case
of China. For a long period of time, China failed to give due attention to academic
achievement assessment because universalization of education was the major
concern then. In 2002, the State Council approved the Action Plan for Invigorating
Education 2003–2007 submitted by the Ministry of Education. The Action Plan
explicitly proposed setting up a monitoring mechanism for education quality at
national and provincial levels, a natural step forward as universal access to com-
pulsory education was mostly completed and quality improvement became the
primary task. This shows the close relationship between assessing student academic
achievement and the undertaking to raise education quality. Improving education
quality was the primal force driving the origination and development of academic
achievement assessment and hence represents its innate trait.
In modern education, in parallel with the development of academic achievement
assessment driven by the need to improve education quality is democratization of
education and equalization of access to education, in which the pursuit for
democracy is highlighted. Apart from equal opportunity to education, people now
require equal opportunity to success, meaning that they are no longer satisfied with
access to education merely in terms of quantity and formality. In addition, they
require education with high quality. This is reflected in people’s pursuit for equity
in education and demonstrates their dawning awareness of human rights. Academic
achievement assessment plays an important role in this regard. It is not only to get
to know the education quality of a certain region, but also to look into the causes of
its status quo, so as to promote quality, equity, and democracy of education.
Therefore, for academic achievement assessment, raising education quality is its
innate trait, and quality embodies democracy and equity.

Qualitative Prescription

The purpose of raising education quality and promoting democracy and equity in
education, with which academic achievement assessment originated and developed,
determines the qualitative prescription of academic achievement assessment that
sets it apart from other forms of assessment, such as school tests, the student
academic proficiency test, and gaucho—the National College Entrance
Examination.
1 Purpose of Academic Achievement Assessment 17

School tests are tests administered by schools themselves and are usually
organized by head teachers and teachers of the tested subjects. Ideally, school tests
are adopted to evaluate student learning outcomes in accordance with different
teaching objectives. The main function of school tests is to diagnose problems and
provide feedback for improvement so as to promote students’ learning and devel-
opment. Besides, among all sorts of assessments school tests could offer the most
comprehensive assessment on students because theoretically they could cover all
educational objectives, including those that are difficult for large-scale tests to
measure, such as students’ high-level thinking abilities, psychomotor skills, and
affects, attitudes, and values. However, due to their microcosmic nature, school
tests have little direct impact on macro-education policies.
In China, the student academic proficiency test, also called hike, is a graduation
examination administered by provincial educational authorities on senior high
school students. It is a form of absolute evaluation, a certification test based on the
objectives of school curriculum. Similar forms of evaluation in other countries
include student graduation examinations in some states of the USA and Australia.
China’s gaokao is a selective examination held to pick students to be admitted
into institutions of higher learning. Exams as such play a heavy part in social
stratification. They test student performance in different subjects of learning, and
some also include intelligence tests, for instance, the Scholastic Aptitude Tests
(SAT) in the USA. Against the backdrop of higher education popularization, there
is a prospect for gaucho to become education and humanity oriented as it should
have been, but its nature as relative evaluation is unlikely to change in a long time
to come.
Academic achievement assessment refers to the activities of evaluating the
learning outcome students obtain in school education circumstances according to
preset educational objectives as well as the factors that influence the attainment,
including collecting data, analyzing data, drawing conclusion, and providing
feedback for improvement. It is a form of absolute evaluation, which is in line with
the student academic proficiency test in this regard and different in nature from
forms of relative evaluation like gaucho. Academic achievement assessment has
multiple means of research including questionnaire survey and on-site tests. It not
only measures students’ academic achievement, but also looks into the factors
affecting their achievement, and provides feedback to students, teachers, parents,
schools, and the government to promote student’s learning and development. In this
respect, it is similar to school tests in its ideal sense. But it differs sharply from
school tests in that it has direct impact on education policymaking and is intended
to meet the demands for public accountability in educational services.
To summarize, the qualitative prescription of academic achievement assessment
is that it is a form of absolute evaluation, that it bears developmental value, that it
plays an educative role, and that it is related to education policymaking. These
characteristics make academic achievement assessment distinct from other forms of
assessment and are the reasons for its existence.
18 2 Overview of Academic Achievement Assessment

1.1.2 Direct Goal and Ultimate Goal

Exploring the goal of academic achievement assessment is finding the answer to the
question why it is conducted, which lies in its qualitative prescription as mentioned
above, namely, its nature of absolute evaluation, its developmental value, its
educative role, and its connection with education policymaking, with the former
two determining its ultimate goal and the latter two its direct goal.
The direct goal of academic achievement assessment is twofold: to improve
student learning and to meet the demands for public accountability.
The educative role of academic achievement assessment determines that it is an
assessment for the benefit of learning. Academic achievement assessment avoids
comparing students with each other, let alone ranking students or disclosing stu-
dents’ personal information, which is against the ethics of education and may bring
harm to students. Through measuring student performance, exploring factors that
affect student achievement, making education policy and improving teaching
practice, academic achievement assessment seeks to help students learn better and
eventually raise education quality. Simply put, the qualitative prescription that it
plays an educative role and that it is related to education policymaking determines
that academic achievement assessment is basically for improving student learning.
The close ties of academic achievement assessment with education policymak-
ing are best demonstrated in its role of meeting the demands for public account-
ability, which is indispensible for a modern legal society. In an institutionalized
society, education is administered by the state and government as a social practice.
The state and government establish the education system, introduce education
policy, and conduct educational practice to provide its people with adequate edu-
cation. For school-age children, the state protects their right to be educated by law
and provides them with good educational resources and environment. Education
authorities and personnel at all levels have the obligation and responsibility to
promote students’ all-round development. All citizens are entitled to enquire into
the quality of educational services provided by the state, and findings of academic
achievement assessment conducted at different levels satisfy such demands for
public accountability. The public is concerned with both quality and the degree of
equity realized in education, which helps guarantee that public educational
resources are used to serve people’s common interests and to meet their growing
need for good education.
To improve students’ learning and meet the demands for public accountability is
eventually for the purpose of promoting students’ development, the ultimate goal of
academic achievement assessment. This ultimate goal is determined by its nature as
absolute evaluation and its developmental value. In other words, among the
aforementioned qualitative prescription of academic achievement assessment, its
nature as absolute evaluation and its developmental value are more fundamental
than its educative role and its connection with education policymaking, as the latter
two are both for the purpose of promoting student development after all. Therefore,
compared with the developmental value of academic achievement assessment,
improving students’ learning and meeting the demands for public accountability are
1 Purpose of Academic Achievement Assessment 19

still intermediary with regard to promoting student development. It is the devel-

opmental value that is the finishing line of academic achievement assessment.

1.2 Significance of Conducting Academic Achievement

Assessment

The origination and development of academic achievement assessment are driven

by the need to raise education quality and promote equity in education. Its sig-
nificance lies also in these two aspects, which means that the absence of academic
achievement assessment would directly hinder the improvement of quality and
equity in education.
Raising education quality takes the efforts of many parties. However, people
would have no idea what education quality is really like if there were non-academic
achievement assessment. China is a typical case in this regard. For a long time,
China does not have national-level comprehensive data on student academic
achievement. Though zhongkao (the Senior High School Entrance Examination)
and gaokao provide some related information, they are essentially selective
examinations and are not sufficient to measure the quality of basic education. As a
result, the state actually loses its say in the status quo of education quality.
Lack of data for evaluating the quality of basic education would lead to blind-
ness and arbitrariness in policymaking. Consequently, public accountability would
lose its focus, making it difficult for either the state to improve education policy, or
the school to better teaching practice.
Besides, academic achievement assessment plays an irreplaceable role in promoting
equity in education. There are many criteria for assessing the extent equal access to
education is achieved, but the central criterion is still student academic achievement. It
could be safely argued that without such assessment it would be impossible to tell
whether the development of basic education is evenly achieved and why it is even/
uneven. Under such circumstances, efforts to promote equity in education, whether by
implementing relevant policy or by improving teaching activities, would not attain the
desired effect. Therefore, conducting academic achievement assessment scientifically
and effectively is necessary for raising education quality, ensuring equity in education,
and eventually, promoting students’ all-round development.

2 Content and Technical Considerations of Academic

Achievement Assessment

The core issues of academic achievement assessment are, among others, its content
and technical considerations, namely what to assess and what technical means to
employ. Before going into these issues, it is necessary to be clear about what
academic achievement is.
Another random document with
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 Tres españoles, Hoz, Camargo y Valdivia, acariciaron al mismo
tiempo la idea de proseguir la abandonada empresa. Mas

Á solo el de Valdivia esta victoria

Con justa y gran razón le fué otorgada,
Y es bien que se celebre su memoria,
Pues pudo adelantar tanto su espada:
Éste alcanzó en Arauco aquella gloria
Que de nadie hasta allí fuera alcanzada;
La altiva gente al grave yugo trujo
Y en opresión la libertad redujo.

Así cantaba, con verdad y justicia, el insigne autor de La

Araucana; pero se aparta igualmente de una y otra cuando, más
adelante, nos dice que Valdivia

Con una espada y capa solamente,

Ayudado de industria que tenía,
Hizo con brevedad de buena gente
Una lucida y gruesa compañía.

Valdivia, al emprender la conquista de Chile, no era un simple y

vulgar aventurero de capa y espada, como nos cuenta Ercilla, sino
Maestre de Campo en el Perú, reputado por sus hazañas en las
guerras de Italia, en el descubrimiento y conquista de Venezuela y
en la batalla de las Salinas. Á su bien ganada fama y á su alto grado
en la milicia, el esforzado extremeño añadía una posición
desahogada, pues poseía el valle de la Canela, en las Charcas, que
después de su partida fué suficiente para ser distribuído entre tres
conquistadores; y una mina de plata que, en un decenio, produjo
más de 200.000 castellanos. Consta del modo más auténtico, por
confesión del mismo Valdivia en carta al Emperador Carlos V,
fechada el 15 de Octubre de 1550. Si no hubiese estado
acomodado, no habría podido emprender, como emprendió por su
cuenta, la conquista de Chile. De Pizarro sólo recibió el
nombramiento de Teniente de Gobernador y Capitán general de la
Nueva Toledo y Chile, con facultades de explorar la tierra de allende
los Andes, á su costa, como pudiera, sin proporcionarle ninguna
especie de auxilio.
Uno de sus compañeros de armas, el capitán Alonso de Góngora
Marmolejo, nos ha dejado el siguiente retrato de Valdivia: «Era
hombre de buena estatura, de rostro alegre, la cabeza grande
conforme al cuerpo, que se había hecho gordo, espaldudo, ancho
de pecho, hombre de buen entendimiento, aunque de palabras no
bien limadas, liberal, y hacía mercedes graciosamente. Después
que fué señor rescibía gran contento en dar lo que tenía; era
generoso en todas sus cosas, amigo de andar bien vestido y
lustroso, y de los hombres que lo andaban, y de comer y beber bien:
afable y humano con todos; mas tenía dos cosas con que
obscurecía todas estas virtudes: que aborrecía á los hombres
nobles, y de ordinario estaba amancebado con una mujer española,
á lo cual fué dado.»
No son estas las faltas que censura en Valdivia el autor de La
Araucana, sino que fuese

Remiso en graves culpas y piadoso,

Y en los casos livianos riguroso.

Trece años duró el descubrimiento, conquista y gobierno de Chile

por Valdivia; trece años de trabajos en tierras, no auríferas, sino
yermas, y en lucha, no con indios como los del Perú, sino con uno
de los pueblos más fieros y valerosos del Nuevo Mundo: los
indómitos araucanos. «No eran éstos ciertamente—escribe el ilustre
historiador chileno Amunátegui—los cumplidos caballeros armados
de lanzas y macanas que ha pintado Don Alonso de Ercilla en
octavas bien rimadas y peinadas, sino bárbaros sin más religión que
algunas supersticiones groseras, ni más organización social que la
que resultaba de la obediencia á los jefes que sobresalían por el
valor ó la astucia; obediencia que, sobre todo en tiempo de paz, era
sumamente floja.»
¿Qué testimonio mayor de la barbarie de estas gentes que lo que
hicieron con Valdivia cuando cayó en sus manos prisionero, en la
desgraciada rota de Tucapel? Según Ercilla, el conquistador de
Chile fué muerto de un golpe de maza. El Padre Alonso de Ovalle
dice que le echaron oro derretido en la boca. Pero lo más cierto en
este punto es la relación de Góngora Marmolejo, confirmada por la
carta del Cabildo de Santiago á la Real Audiencia de Lima, el 26 de
Febrero de 1554, según la cual el desgraciado Valdivia, después de
prisionero, vivió hasta tres días, herido y maltrado horriblemente, y,
después de muerto, los feroces araucanos cortaron el cadáver en
pedazos y se lo comieron. Ercilla, que con tan patéticos colores nos
pinta la muerte del bárbaro Caupolicán, no tuvo para el heroico
español sino vulgares frases, desnudas de poesía. No sabemos si
para la honra de España han sido más fatales los versos de Ercilla ó
las páginas del Padre Las Casas, abogados igualmente de los
Indios é injustos con los conquistadores.

Codicia, fué ocasión de tanta guerra,

Y perdición total de aquesta tierra.

Decía el autor de la La Araucana, La codicia, y solamente la

codicia, han repetido después, en su odio á nuestra patria, los
detractores de sus glorias.
Por dicha nuestra, es la gloriosa figura del conquistador de Chile
una de las que, de manera más cumplida, patentizan ante el mundo
la grandeza civilizadora del descubrimiento y conquista del Nuevo
Mundo. No fué sólo la codicia el móvil de obra tan grande, ni la
guerra el único medio que emplearon nuestros padres. Valdivia,
maestre de campo; Valdivia, acomodado, no fué á Chile por pura
codicia; fué por dar rienda suelta á su espíritu aventurero, religioso y
patriótico; fué por encontrar un campo en que poder dar vuelo á la
fuerza de acción que sentía en sí mismo. Por eso en Valdivia vale,
tanto ó más que el soldado, el civilizador y colonizador, el fundador
de la sociedad chilena. Díganlo, si no, las ciudades que dejó
fundadas, que son hoy las más florecientes de la República chilena.
Santiago, La Serena, La Concepción, La Imperial, Valdivia,
Valparaíso, todas fueron erigidas por Valdivia. En ninguna otra
conquista entró por menos la sed de oro ni el afán de riquezas que
en la conquista de Chile. Precisamente las minas de este país casi
no han sido conocidas y explotadas hasta nuestro tiempo. La
población de Chile fué desde el principio de gente trabajadora y
modesta, pero fuerte y valerosa. Á esto quiza deba principalmente la
hoy poderosa República el fundamento sólido y venturoso de su
prosperidad y de su gloria.
Y, dicho sea en su honra, de todas las nuevas naciones
americanas de origen español, Chile es la que más noblemente ha
conservado y honrado las memorias de sus padres. En el cerro de
Santa Lucía, en Santiago, coronando la ciudad, se alza hace años la
estatua de Valdivia, ejemplo que no ha tenido hasta ahora los
imitadores que debiera en otros Estados. Aún no tienen estatuas en
Méjico Hernán Cortés, en Lima Pizarro, en Bogotá Quesada, en
Buenos Aires Garay, y así otros grandes conquistadores de pueblos
y fundadores de ciudades. Lejos de mi ánimo acusar de ingratas,
sino de perezosas, á las naciones que se encuentran en este caso.
Estoy seguro de que no ha de tardar mucho tiempo en que todas
honrarán á sus conquistadores como Chile á Valdivia.
Importa añadir que, no sólo la estatua, sino la casa y capilla de
Valdivia, en Santiago, publican la gratitud de los chilenos al
desventurado y glorioso conquistador. Es más: la fiesta que
anualmente consagran á su memoria, no fué interrumpida ni en los
días de la guerra entre Chile y España. De este modo el pueblo
chileno revela bien á las claras los caracteres que distinguen á su
organización social, fundada igualmente en la tradición y el
progreso, y la fuerza y esplendor de su cultura, de la que puede
envanecerse justamente y con Chile la patria de Almagro y de
Valdivia.
 GONZALO JIMÉNEZ DE QUESADA
EN LA POESÍA Y EN LA HISTORIA
EL 6 de Abril de 1536, D. Pedro Fernández de Lugo, Gobernador de
Santa Marta, envió á su Teniente y Justicia mayor, el Licenciado
Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, con 800 hombres, 100 caballos y 5
bergantines, Río Grande de la Magdalena arriba, «á inquirir
particularmente lo que por este río la tierra adentro se pudiese calar
y entender.»
El resultado de esta expedición fué el descubrimiento y conquista
del territorio que Jiménez de Quesada, como granadino que era,
bautizó con el nombre de Nuevo Reino de Granada, y que hoy
constituye la mejor parte de la actual República de Colombia.
Entre los héroes españoles en el Nuevo Mundo, el conquistador
de Nueva Granada y autor de la maravillosa expedición á Eldorado,
por sus condiciones personales como por sus gigantescas hazañas,
se cuenta sin duda entre los más grandes, acaso, después del
conquistador de Méjico, y seguramente al lado de Cortés, Pizarro,
Valdivia, Almagro y Orellana. Letrado, poeta, historiador, inteligencia
aguda y brillante, añadía á estas prendas las que más enaltecieron
á los mayores conquistadores: la constancia, la prudencia, la
generosidad; en suma, las cualidades del General y del político á un
tiempo.
Fué el descubrimiento del Nuevo Reino de Granada una de las
empresas más admirables de aquella época, tan fecunda en hechos
asombrosos. Buscando el nacimiento del Río Grande de la
Magdalena, por las aguas y por las orillas subieron nuestros
expedicionarios ciento seis leguas hasta llegar á Tora. En el
transcurso de trece meses, de los 800 hombres quedaron vivos
poco más de 150. El hambre les llevó, en ocasiones, á comer raíces
de árboles, y aun las mismas adargas que llevaban para su defensa.
Al salir de Tora, aquel puñado de héroes, rendidos, enfermos,
caminaban apoyándose muchos en palos y ramas. El Capitán, no
pudiéndose tener á pie ni á caballo, era llevado á hombros por su
gente. Escena verdaderamente grandiosa, que deben tener
presente los que sólo ven en los conquistadores la codicia del oro,
olvidando sus padecimientos incomparables. Así atravesaron las
montañas del Opón, y entraron en las altas tierras de Bogotá.
En estas condiciones acometieron la conquista de un territorio que
podía tener sesenta leguas de N. á S., y sobre poco más ó menos
otras tantas de E. á O. Obra de la prudencia y el ingenio, aunados al
valor y á la firmeza, la conquista y pacificación de la tierra no fueron
acompañadas de ferocidades y matanzas, como otras empresas
semejantes. Y no es de olvidar que en algunas partes tenían que
habérselas con indios como los Panches, «gente bestial y de mucha
salvajía.» El hallazgo de las esmeraldas no suscitó tampoco
sangrientas luchas entre los españoles. Las nuevas poblaciones
nacieron sin violencia ni despojos, singularmente Bogotá, que aún
conserva, como pocas ciudades de América, el sello impreso por su
fundador en los primeros orígenes.
Cuando Sebastián de Belalcázar, viniendo de Quito, llegó á Nueva
Granada, encontró á Quesada y á los suyos «en mucha neçesidad,
por que ya les avía faltado casi todas las armas y herraje y vestidos
y cosas de España.» Estas palabras de Belalcázar se contienen en
carta escrita el 20 de Marzo de 1540, que saldrá íntegra á luz, muy
en breve, en el tomo civ de la Colección de documentos inéditos
para la Historia de España. Precioso testimonio que prueba el
penosísimo estado en que aquellos héroes se encontraban después
del vencimiento.
Por fortuna, los sucesos principales de tan gran empresa
quedaron registrados en documentos del más autorizado origen y
procedencia. El primero de todos es la relación escrita por el
conquistador, cuyo original se ha perdido, pero que manejó y copió
en gran parte el cronista Fernández de Oviedo. «Muchas veces—
escribe—tuve plática en Madrid con el licenciado Ximenez, y en
Valladolid, en la corte del príncipe Don Felipe, nuestro señor, y nos
comunicamos; y á la verdad es hombre honrado y de gentil
entendimiento y bien hábil. Y como yo sabía quél avía conquistado
el nuevo reyno de Granada y descubierto la mina de las esmeraldas,
y avía visto la relaçion que los offiçiales avían enviado a Su
Magestad Cessárea... quise informarme dél de algunas cosas viva
voce, y él no solamente de palabra, pero por escripto, me mostró un
gran cuaderno de sus subçesos, y lo tuve muchos días en mi poder,
y hallé en él muchas cosas de las que tengo aquí dichas en los
capítulos preçedentes, y de otras que aquí se pondrán.»
Después de Quesada, el historiador más antiguo y más
importante es el autor de las Elegías de varones ilustres de Indias,
Juan de Castellanos. Bien como continuación de las Elegías y
formando cuerpo con ellas, que es lo que tengo por más seguro,
bien como obra aparte y especial, como otros creen, ello es que
Castellanos escribió en verso la historia del Nuevo Reino de
Granada, desleída más tarde en prosa, sin decirlo, por Luis
Fernández Piedrahita, fuente, á su vez, de los trabajos históricos
posteriores. Castellanos pasó la mayor parte de su vida en el reino
conquistado por Quesada, conoció á éste y á muchos de sus
compañeros, y estaba, por consiguiente, en condiciones de relatar
los sucesos con verdadero conocimiento de causa. Su versificación,
desmayada y ramplona, vecina de la prosa, hace pesada la lectura
de esta historia, por otra parte más fiel y exacta que los poemas
históricos de descubrimientos y conquistas, incluso La Araucana de
Ercilla, su modelo.
No puede decirse otro tanto de la comedia La Conquista de
Bogotá, de D. Fernando Orbea. Precisamente esta comedia es todo
lo contrario del poema del buen Clérigo de Alanis. Si éste descuella
por su valor histórico, aquélla sobresale por su desconocimiento de
la historia. De este modo, es el poema de Castellanos crónica
rimada, y la comedia de Orbea pura novela, en su argumento, en
sus situaciones, en una palabra, en todo. Solamente hay de real en
ella los nombres de Quesada, Belalcázar y Lugo, y los de Tundama
y Nemequene, aplicados á dos personajes bogotanos. Hasta en
punto á versificación no cabe imaginar mayor contraste que el que
ofrecen el poema y la comedia, prosaico en superlativo grado el
primero, culterana á más no poder la segunda.
Hállase entre los manuscritos de nuestra Biblioteca Nacional
procedentes de la de los Duques de Osuna, adquirida por el Estado.
Su título es el siguiente:
«COMEDIA
NUEVA

La Conquista de Santa Fee de Bogotá

su autor Don Fernando Orbea. Copiada
fielmente segun su insigne Original.»
Ni de la comedia ni de su autor tenemos otras noticias. Conjeturo
que Orbea era americano ó español residente en América. Me fundo
para ello en las canciones que canta en indio y en español, en el
acto III, la india Florela. En lo que no cabe duda es en que fué
compuesta para Lima, como lo prueban sus últimos versos:

Ilustre Lima, aquí tiene

Fin el concepto expresado:
Vuestra discreción tolere
Los yerros, que han sido tantos.

No dejan de ser, en efecto, muchos los yerros de nuestro autor,

desde el principio al fin de su comedia, sobre todo en lo que
respecta á la verdad histórica, que sale, con leves diferencias, tan
bien librada como en las demás comedias de descubrimientos y
conquistas, inclusas las de Lope y Calderón.
Tundama, general de Osmín, rey de Bogotá, acaba de derrotar,
en descomunal batalla, los ejércitos del rey de Popayán, trayendo
entre los trofeos de su victoria á la infanta Amirena, por quien siente
un amor tan súbito y vehemente como el que ha logrado inspirar á la
intrépida amazona. Llegado á la corte, recíbenlo, con grande fiesta,
el Monarca bogotano y su esposa Palmira. Entonces les sorprende
la venida del Mariscal Quesada con Belalcázar y Lugo, que llegan á
Bogotá por un río tan fantástico como el rey Osmín, la reina Palmira,
la infanta Amirena, el general Tundama, la victoria de éste, las
fiestas, en suma, todo. Bien es verdad que en lo que toca á los
españoles, se permite nuestro autor libertades semejantes,
convirtiendo á Belalcázar y Lugo en compañeros y capitanes de
Quesada. Pero donde raya más alto su inventiva es en la marcha de
la acción, que se reduce á una serie de batallas y de escenas
mágicas y milagrosas, en las que ostentan todo su poder la Religión
Cristiana y los dioses bogotanos en simbólicos combates. Y como si
todo esto no fuese bastante para agotar la rica vena de nuestro
autor, Quesada se enamora de Palmira, y ésta de Quesada,
terminando la comedia con la boda en perspectiva del Capitán
español y la Reina bogotana, á quien su futuro acaba de nombrar
Duquesa de Cali y Tunga.

¡Dulce fin! Venus y Marte

Han vencido y han triunfado,

exclama Palmira, satisfecha del venturoso desenlace, y asunto

terminado,
No es cosa de privar á los lectores del conocimiento de algunos
otros incidentes de nuestra comedia. Amirena muere peleando
como la más heroica amazona. Tundama, su amante, que aspiraba
á ceñir á sus sienes la corona de Bogotá, perece en la demanda. El
rey Osmín, es, en toda la obra, trasunto fiel del infortunado Boabdil.
Y para serlo en todo, hasta es reprendido en iguales términos que
aquél cuando rompe á llorar viendo perdido su reino.

Llore, pues, como mujer

Quien valiente no ha sabido
Ser en la campaña rayo
De aleves advenedizos.
 Por el contrario, Castellanos nos representa al Rey de Bogotá
digno, en su persona y en sus hechos, del poder que ejercía:

Éste, segun oyeron españoles,

Representaba bien en su persona,
Alta disposición y gallardía
Y gravedad de rostro bien compuesto,
La dignidad y mando que tenía
Sobre los otros reyes desta tierra.

Oviedo nos asegura «que era muy cruel é muy temido y no

amado; y el día que se supo cierto que era muerto, fué general el
alegría en toda su tierra, porque los caciques y señores quitaron de
sí una tiranía muy grande.»
Orbea creyó preferible, sin duda, en vez de consultar los
testimonios históricos, entregarse de lleno al libre vuelo de su
fantasía, comenzando por bautizar al pobre Rey con el nombre
turco-moro de Osmín, tan bogotano como el de Palmira, que da á su
esposa.
De la propiedad histórica en todo lo demás, puede juzgarse sólo
con parar mientes en los románticos amores que sirven de base al
argumento de la comedia, recordando que en el territorio
descubierto por Quesada existía la poligamia; que el Rey de Bogotá
tenía centenares de mujeres, y cada uno de su reino cuantas podía
mantener, y que, como refiere Castellanos, cuando un indio gustaba
de alguna india

Contrata con los padres ó parientes

Que la tienen debajo de su mano,
Cerca del precio que dará por ella;
Y si la cantidad no les contenta,
El comprador añade por dos veces
La mitad más de lo que dió primero;
Y si de la tercera vez no compra,
 Busca mujer que sea más barata;
Mas si les satisface lo que manda,
Dánsela, sin usarse de más ritos
De recibirla, dándoles la paga,
Quedándose con ella quien la vende,

Corre parejas con el romanticismo de los indios la erudición

clásica que nuestro autor les prodiga á manos llenas, y aun más, si
cabe, el manejo de la Historia de España que les atribuye, hasta el
punto de que Amirena, al arengar á los soldados bogotanos,
comienza por decirles:

Ea, valientes soldados,

Examinad la campaña;
No quede tronco ni selva
Que no registre la saña,
En pavesas renovando
Los estragos de Numancia.

Á pesar de tantas impropiedades, por otra parte, como el estilo

gongorino, corrientes en nuestro viejo teatro, hay de vez en cuando
en la comedia de Orbea algunos rasgos de cierto mérito, como, por
ejemplo, aquel en que Quesada, después de amonestar al rey
Osmín á que se convierta, le amenaza si no lo hace, diciéndole:

Te quitaré la corona;
Pisarála Carlos Quinto;
Pondré en tus bárbaros templos
Lo estandartes de Cristo.
Pondré la planta en tu cuello,
Después que te haya vencido:
Y al subir á mi caballo
Me servirás por estribo.
 En ocasiones semejantes, Orbea suele abandonar el culteranismo
y hablar el lenguaje propio de los afectos del alma. No así en las
descripciones y relatos, en los cuales vierte el caudal de sus
tinieblas, como, pongo por caso, en la relación que hace Tundama
de su victoria sobre los popayanos, que es larga y tenebrosa como
noche de invierno.
Para concluir, La Conquista de Bogotá es una de tantas comedias
de descubrimientos y conquistas, en las cuales ni éstas ni aquéllos
se nos muestran con la verdad y poesía que tuvieron. Toda la
realidad y la vida con que aparecen en los monumentos históricos,
desaparecen al ser convertidas en alegorías artificiales, batallas de
teatro ó enredos de damas y galanes, ni más ni menos que en las
comedias de capa y espada.
Digámoslo de una vez: los hechos del descubrimiento y conquista
del Nuevo Mundo no caben en el teatro. Caben, sí, en la Historia,
que puede presentarlos en su propia grandeza y con su natural
hermosura.
 EL ALFÉREZ DOÑA CATALINA DE
ERAUSO
EL Capitán Miguel de Erauso, vecino de San Sebastián, á fines del
siglo xvi y principios del xvii hubo en su mujer María Pérez de
Galarraga tres hijos, militares los tres, otras tantas hijas, todas
monjas profesas, y, además, el sér extraño vulgarmente conocido
con el nombre de La Monja Alférez, militar como sus hermanos,
monja como sus hermanas, en el claustro Soror Catalina de Erauso,
y en los ejércitos de Chile y el Perú Alonso Díaz Ramírez de
Guzmán.
La existencia de este fenómeno antropológico consta del modo
más auténtico en documentos y testimonios fehacientes de su
época. Hablan de tan singular mujer: el Dr. Isasti, en su Compendio
histórico de la Provincia de Guipúzcoa; el maestro Gil González
Dávila, en su Historia de la vida del ínclito monarca, amado y santo
Don Felipe III; Pedro de la Valle, el Peregrino, en Carta á Mario
Schipano, fechada en Roma el 11 de Julio de 1626, y otros textos de
menor importancia, escritos, como los anteriores, en vida de la
célebre Monja.
Á los mismos días pertenece también la comedia de Montalbán La
Monja Alférez, compuesta el año en que ésta se hallaba en Roma,
que fué el de 1626.

.......tenga fin aquí

Este caso verdadero.
 Donde llega la comedia
Han llegado los sucesos.
Que hoy está el Alférez Monja
En Roma, y si casos nuevos
Dieren materia á la pluma,
Segunda parte os prometo.

Aun más importantes son, sin duda, los documentos originales

que existen en el Archivo de Indias, en Sevilla, sobre todo el
Expediente de méritos y servicios del famoso Alférez, encabezado
con un pedimento suyo, verdadera autobiografía, comprobada por
las certificaciones de autoridades militares tan importantes como D.
Luis de Céspedes Xeria, Gobernador y Capitán general del
Paraguay, D. Juan Cortés de Monroy, Gobernador y Capitán general
de Veraguas, y D. Juan Recio de León, Maestre de Campo y
Teniente de Gobernador y Capitán general y Justicia mayor de las
provincias de Tipoán y Chunchos. No hay personaje de aquel
tiempo cuyos hechos capitales estén comprobados más plenamente
que los del Alférez Doña Catalina de Erauso.
Á estas fuentes, de autenticidad indiscutible, podemos recurrir, por
fortuna, para conocer la verdad, ya en vida de Catalina,
considerablemente adulterada en narraciones novelescas tenidas
por históricas aun en los mismos días que alcanzamos.
La principal de estas narraciones, considerada como verdadera
autobiografía, y en la cual se funda cuanto dentro y fuera de España
se ha escrito modernamente tocante á nuestra heroína, es la
publicada en París, en 1829, por el ilustre hombre de Estado y de
letras D. Joaquín María Ferrer, con el título: Historia de la Monja
Alférez, Doña Catalina de Erauso, escrita por ella misma.
Ya el docto crítico pudo observar en el texto de esta obra,
comparándola algunas veces con preciosos documentos hasta
entonces desconocidos y por él sacados á luz, numerosas
equivocaciones en punto á fechas y nombres; pero, lejos de entrar
en sospechas respecto á la autenticidad del manuscrito, atribuyó los
errores observados á la impericia del copista; cuando estos errores,
y otros de más bulto no reparados hasta ahora; la índole misma de
la supuesta Historia, que tiene desde la cruz á la fecha todo el corte
y sabor de novela picaresca, más burda quizás que ninguna otra; la
carencia de toda prueba, ni memoria siquiera de que la Monja
Alférez hubiera escrito su vida en ninguna forma, y, sobre todo, la
radical diferencia de la figura verdaderamente histórica, la que los
documentos nos ofrecen con la que aparece en algunos capítulos
de la novela, bastan sobradamente para evidenciar por completo
que la pretendida autobiografía es poco más ó menos tan histórica
como la comedia de Montalbán ó la zarzuela de Coello.
Como en otros casos, la persona histórica es mucho más
interesante, más poética que la personalidad de la leyenda. La
imaginación del novelista ó del poeta, lejos de embellecer, ha afeado
la figura de la heroína que intentaba enaltecer con sus invenciones,
al convertirla en personaje, ya de comedia de capa y espada, ya de
novela picaresca. El Alférez Monja de su pretendida autobiografía
no es siquiera un pícaro de la familia de los Lazarillos y Guzmanes;
es un espadachín ó perdonavidas adocenado, más bien un guapo ó
jaque vulgar, sin talento, sin grandeza, hasta sin gracia, cuyas
aventuras, toscamente referidas, están siempre lejos de despertar
interés, y mucho menos simpatía. Pasajes hay en ese libro, tan
repugnantes los unos, tan chabacanos los otros, que sólo con
sólidas pruebas podían ser atribuidos á la verdadera Monja Alférez,
hija de padres nobles, hidalgos y personas principales, como ella
misma nos dice, y de quien sus antiguos jefes aseguraban á una
voz haberle conocido siempre con mucha virtud y limpieza.
¿Pues qué diremos de la licencia para vestir siempre hábito de
varón, que en ese libro se supone haber otorgado á nuestra heroína
la Santidad de Urbano VIII? ¿Ni qué del título de ciudadano romano
concedido por el Senado de Roma? Es cierto que en cambio
encontramos en él hechos ciertos y probados. Todo lo cual nos
lleva, naturalmente, á creer que el autor de la novela tuvo en cuenta
algún relato de la vida del Alférez Monja, en que las invenciones y
las verdades andaban ya mezcladas y confundidas.
La confusión comienza precisamente en lo relativo á la fecha del
nacimiento de Catalina. El retrato de Pacheco, hecho en 1630, dice
que tenía ésta entonces cincuenta y dos años, por cuya cuenta se la
supone nacida en 1578. La novela comienza así: «Nací yo Doña
Catalina de Erauso en la villa de San Sebastián de Guipúzcoa, en el
año 1585.» Ahora bien: en los libros parroquiales de San Vicente
consta que recibió el bautismo el 10 de Febrero de 1592.
Su infancia nos es desconocida por completo. Todo cuanto se ha
dicho sobre la violencia de su condición, que obligó á sus padres á
recluirla desde muy niña en un convento, en el cual, al decir de un
escritor francés, «on eût dit d’un faucon élevé par mégarde dans un
nid de tourterelles», pertenece al dominio de la fábula. Entró en el
convento de monjas Dominicas de San Sebastián el Antiguo, como
entraron también en él tres hermanas suyas, como entraban
entonces tantas doncellas principales, esto es, por vocación
religiosa ó conveniencia de las familias. Las condiciones personales
de sus hermanas les permitieron profesar; las suyas le llevaron á
abandonar el convento antes que abrazar una profesión contraria á
sus inclinaciones y deseos.
La noticia más antigua que de su vida ha llegado á nosotros se
refiere al año de 1605, décimotercero de su edad y primero de su
estancia en el convento, en el cual estuvo en calidad de novicia
hasta Marzo de 1607. Desde esta fecha dejan de mencionarla los
libros conventuales. Á este mismo año pertenecen en cambio las
primeras noticias de su vida militar. «Certifico y hago fe á S. M. que
conozco á Catalina de Erauso de más de diez y ocho años á esta
parte que ha que entró por soldado en hábito de hombre», escribía,
en 1625 D. Luis de Céspedes Xeria, antes citado. Catalina decía en
1626, en su pedimento, que «en tiempo de diez y nueve años á esta
parte, los quince los ha empleado en las guerras del reino de Chile é
Indios del Pirú.» Ahora bien: añadiendo á estos quince años los
cuatro siguientes hasta 1626, en los cuales, descubierto su sexo,
dejó de servir en la milicia, resultan los diez y nueve á que hace
referencia, y el de 1607, principio de su vida militar. Á mayor
abundamiento, el Capitán de infantería española D. Francisco Pérez
de Navarrete asegura en su certificación “que cuando llegué al reino
de Chile, que fué el año de seiscientos y ocho, le hallé (al Alférez
Monja) sirviendo en el Estado de Arauco.”
 Maravilla en verdad que una joven de diez y seis años, casi una
niña, tuviese en tan tierna edad resolución y fortaleza bastante para
abandonar su país, su familia, el convento en que vivía, atravesar el
Atlántico y, lo que es más sorprendente todavía, que la novicia de
San Sebastián el Antiguo se nos muestre de repente convertida en
soldado, combatiendo entre aquellos héroes

Que á la cerviz de Arauco no domada

Pusieron duro yugo por la espada.

Sus condiciones militares fueron tantas y tales, que el Capitán

Guillén de Casanova, castellano del castillo de Arauco, “la entresacó
de la compañía, por valiente y buen soldado, para salir á campear al
enemigo.” Por sus hechos mereció igualmente “tener bandera de S.
M., sirviendo, como sirvió, de Alférez de la compañía de infantería
del Capitán Gonzalo Rodríguez.” Y en todo el tiempo que sirvió en
Chile y el Perú “se señaló con mucho esfuerzo y valor, recibiendo
heridas, particularmente en la batalla de Purén.”
No conocemos caso semejante en nuestra historia. Nuestras
heroínas antiguas y modernas fuéronlo, por decirlo así, de ocasión,
en momentos determinados, en alguna empresa memorable. Pero
abrazar la carrera de las armas, ser militares de profesión, rivalizar
con los mejores soldados en valor, disciplina, fortaleza, heroísmo, y
por espacio de tantos años como la Monja Alférez, ninguna.
Solamente la doncella de Orleans es comparable con la doncella
donostiarra. Naturalezas, no diré idénticas, pero sí parecidas,
parecidos fueron también los impulsos que las arrojaron al combate.
Cuenta la leyenda de Catalina que ésta abandonó el convento por
una reyerta que tuvo con otra monja. ¡Pequeña causa para explicar
tan grandes efectos! Es Catalina quien nos refiere los verdaderos
móviles de su pasada á las Indias: “la particular inclinación que tuvo
de ejercitar las armas en defensa de la fe católica y el servicio del
Rey”, es decir, de la patria.
 La fe y la patria, he aquí los grandes sentimientos que
despertaron las energías varoniles de aquella mujer extraordinaria,
los que la infundieron el entusiasmo, el vigor, la constancia con que
se arrojó á defenderlos al otro lado de los mares, en las tierras
americanas. La sublime visionaria de la Lorena y la esforzada
doncella vascongada son hermanas, mayor, si se quiere, la primera,
y menor la segunda, pero hermanas, seguramente. La leyenda, que
ha contribuído tanto á sublimar la figura de Juana de Arco, ha
empequeñecido, por el contrario, la de la heroína del Arauco. La
glorificación del martirio corona la grandeza de la doncella de
Orleans: en este punto, como en otros, Juana de Arco no tiene igual,
ni en la historia de Francia ni en la de ningún otro pueblo.
Lo que más es de admirar en el Alférez-Monja es que pudiera
conservar, como rigurosamente conservó, el secreto de su sexo, de
tal modo, que en los quince años que sirvió en Chile no fuera
conocida sino por hombre, hecho el más comprobado de todos en
su expediente. Y no es que debamos atribuirlo exclusivamente al
poder de su voluntad, como algunos pretenden, sino también á la
singularidad de sus condiciones físicas, manifiestamente varoniles,
como lo prueban su retrato y la descripción de su persona, que nos
han dejado algunos de los que la conocieron y trataron.
Su resolución y entereza en la ocultación de su sexo rayaron, á no
dudarlo, en lo increíble. Basta saber «que con estar en compañía
del Alférez Miguel de Erauso, su hermano legítimo, en el reino de
Chile, nunca se descubrió á él, aunque ella le conocía por tal
hermano, y esto hizo por no ser descubierta, negando la afición de
la sangre.»
De su aspecto varonil cabe formar cabal idea por la relación de
Pedro de la Valle, que la conoció y trató en Roma en 1626, cuando
la antigua novicia fué en aquel año á echarse á los pies del Papa,
confesando su vida é implorando el perdón de sus faltas. «Es—
escribía—de estatura grande y abultada para mujer, bien que por
ella no parezca no ser hombre. No tiene pechos: que desde muy
muchacha me dijo haber hecho no sé qué remedio para secarlos y
quedar llanos, como le quedaron: el cual fué un emplasto que le dió
un italiano, que cuando se lo puso le causó gran dolor; pero
después, sin hacerle otro mal, surtió el efecto.»
«De rostro no es fea, pero no hermosa, y se le reconoce estar
algún tanto maltratada, pero no de mucha edad. Los cabellos son
negros y cortos como de hombre, con un poco de melena como hoy
se usa. En efecto, parece más eunuco que mujer. Viste de hombre á
la española: trae la espada bien ceñida, y así la vida: la cabeza un
poco agobiada, más de soldado valiente que de cortesano y de vida
amorosa. Sólo en las manos se le puede conocer que es mujer,
porque las tiene abultadas y carnosas, y robustas y fuertes, bien que
las mueve algo como mujer.»
¿Cómo y cuándo se descubrió que fuese tal mujer? Lo
positivamente cierto que se sabe en este punto, es que se descubrió
ella misma, en 1622 ó 23, al Obispo de Guamanga, por unas
heridas de muerte que tuvo. Los pormenores de este hecho han
quedado desconocidos. La leyenda se ha apoderado de él más que
de ningún otro. Baste decir que la supuesta Historia, la comedia de
Montalbán y la zarzuela de Coello, nos dan otras tantas versiones,
todas ellas igualmente fantásticas. La más poética, sin duda, es la
de Coello, quien, con su admirable instinto dramático, atribuye al
amor el secreto de la mudanza operada en Catalina.

¿Qué es lo que cambia mi sér?

Ya lo empiezo á vislumbrar:
La desgracia me hizo amar.....
Y el amor me hace mujer.

«Venida á España, en hábito de varón, solicitó y obtuvo, en

premio de «sus servicios y largas peregrinaciones y hechos
valerosos», un entretenimiento de setenta pesos, de á veintidós
quilates, al mes, en la ciudad de Cartagena de Indias, y una ayuda
de costa para el viaje.» Diríase que ya no sabía vivir lejos de la tierra
americana, teatro de sus hazañas, tumba de sus cenizas.
 Omito algunos otros pormenores de su vida, por considerarlos de
secundaria importancia para el conocimiento de esta heroína
excepcional, única en su siglo y en los anales de España, cuya
verdadera historia concluyó el día en que se vió forzada á cerrar el
ciclo de sus aventuras con la revelación de su sexo.