By Shuqiang Zhang

This has been a busy weekend for many college-bound Hawai'i students as they gathered around the state to take the Stanford Achievement Test, or SAT.

This year's test differs slightly from those of past years, with greater emphasis on writing and critical reading.

So it will be somewhat difficult to directly compare results from this year's testing with recent SAT and Hawai'i State Assessment, or HSA, scores.

But what do these test scores really tell us? Can we judge the quality of a school or the effectiveness of teachers based on these scores?

Although the SAT has proved reliable in sorting academically strong or weak students, two factors seriously limit its use in determining the quality of education in Hawai'i relative to other states.

First, the SAT is strictly based upon the curricular content specified by the testing company. Since the United States has no uniform curriculum, the common belief that SAT can be adopted as the primary standard by which to judge school quality seems problematic.

The SAT inevitably aligns better with the content present in some states than in others.

Another problem with the SAT is that the percentage of students taking the test varies. In some states, most college-bound students take the SAT, while in others, most college-bound students take the ACT. The percentage of students taking the test significantly affects the average score.

Thus, extrapolations based upon simplistic rankings of the average scores are spurious.

The HSA, based on uniform content and performance standards, is less problematic, but it, too, has its limitations, and I advise caution in using the scores to judge the quality of a school. The academic performance of children is related to their community's socioeconomic characteristics. School quality is one important characteristic, but it is not the sole determinant of academic performance.

Students in some communities may perform less well than their counterparts in other communities. Such differences are real. They speak to an unpleasant fact of life. Given a reasonably fair test, School A may show a lower average score than School B. However, if School A serves a larger proportion of students whose native language is not English, or whose parents tend not to have had adequate educational opportunities, no fair-minded person would immediately dismiss the instruction at School A as low-quality.

It may be that School A is doing a commendable job in helping students to overcome their disadvantages. If so, irresponsible harsh criticisms would be misguided because they alienate students from their schools, demoralize teachers and reinforce educational inequities.

There is a real danger in denigrating the value of the education offered based solely on low test scores.

While low-quality instruction necessarily results in low test scores, low test scores do not necessarily result from low-quality instruction. Policy deliberations narrowly focused on test scores to justify punishment of the so-called low-achieving schools are counterproductive.

I am not suggesting that poor academic performance should be tolerated for disadvantaged children. Low test scores should be a matter of concern for us all.

It is quite obvious, from the HSA results, that many public schools are struggling to meet the standards.

It is indisputable that our public schools need improvement. However, using the low test scores to motivate teachers to teach more effectively is one thing; using the low test scores to disparage their teaching is another. This difference in interpretation has profound implications for the success of our public education.

The most meaningful use of the test results is to inform the instructional process so that our schools can address the different needs of our diverse student population, particularly those of the disadvantaged children.

The SAT and HSA results tell us something about one important aspect of our educational system. Like body weight, which is a relevant attribute of our physical well-being, test scores need to be interpreted in relation to a host of other factors.

No physician will base a clinical decision on body weight alone. Nor should schools be judged by test scores alone.

Shuqiang Zhang is associate professor in educational psychology at the University of Hawai'i.