Standardized educational tests

<p>There are several tests, not all are universal, that try to measure the educational level of students. I am particularly interested in those that can be used to measure the <a class="wikilink" href="/basic_competences_that_define_scientific_literacy/">basic competences that define scientific literacy</a> and are used, for example, to determine that <a class="wikilink" href="/science_education_outputs_correlate_with_socioeconomic_level/">science education outputs correlate with socioeconomic level</a>, or that <a class="wikilink" href="/university_students_perform_poorly_in_basic_science_tests/">University students perform poorly in basic science tests</a>. </p> <p>Some of these tests are: </p> <ul> <li>PISA Tests</li> <li>TIMSS</li> <li>TERCE</li> <li>ERCE</li> </ul> <p>I wonder weather using standardized tests would not induce the problems of <a class="wikilink" href="/measuring_performance_using_single_criteria/">measuring performance using single criteria</a> or <a class="wikilink" href="/quantifying_performance_using_multiple_measurements/">quantifying performance using multiple measurements</a>. The contents of the exams I've seen are broad and somewhat abstract. And it is not clear to me that artificial incentives necessarily create unintended consequences.</p>