A statewide testing pilot initiative is bring introduced to five states including Illinois, but Faculty Senate does not have a official stance on the issue.

“We’re remaining passive,” said senate member and English professor David Carpenter.

The testing project was one of several topics discussed at Tuesday’s senate meeting.

The senate asked English professors David Radavich and Bonnie Irwin to speak to the initiative, introduced by the Pew Charitable Trusts as optional to to private and public universities.

The Illinois Board of Higher Education is pushing the pilot for testing similar to that used in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Each academic discipline is being asked to develop exams or other measures to assess what students have learned during the first two years of college and closer to graduation, according to an IBHE press release.

Radavich asked the senate not to endorse the testings project.

“There’s a desire to measure student outcome … which implies basically if you can’t measure something it might not be valuable,” he said. “There was a lot of concern that Eastern’s mission is different (from other schools). These tests would not make a lot of discernment between that.”

The pilot, designed to be an instrument developed by faculty, was discussed at the Illinois Federation of Teachers meeting last month, he said.

The testing will be a way to assess teaching and what students are learning at a time when Eastern is already going through assessment and self-study, Radavich said.

“We’re undergoing our own (North Central Association) accreditation…I don’t see how we could take on another assessment in addition to that,” he said.

He said the electronic writing portfolio is another form of assessment at Eastern. The portfolio is a collection of submissions showing the progression of student writing over their college career.

The study also seems geared towards vocational learning, something better suited to junior colleges, Radavich said.

Black Hawk College, a community college in Moline, has already advanced further toward the testing, which will lead to assessment even of teachers, he said.

“Tenure promotion is based on measurable student outcomes,” he said.

If the pilot is meant to show student performance overall, Eastern might not perform as well if measured on a national level, said technology professor and senate member Mori Toosi.

He said Eastern can specialize more on a departmental level, such as in manufacturing.

Student Government representative Brice Donnelly said students might not see an incentive in the testing and not put forth effort for an assessment that won’t directly affect their future.

“I just don’t see how you can make students care so much about (testing),” he said.

“I’m against standardized testing, period,” said sociology professor and senate member Reed Benedict.

The IBHE faculty advisory council did not reach a consensus on the testing, English professor and council member Bonnie Irwin told the senate.

“A majority of the people in the room thought this was a bad idea for a number of reasons,” she said. “It’s very murky right now.”

The Pew Charitable Trusts proposed the pilot based on a model of a past standardized test, said Blair Lord, vice president of academic affairs Tuesday.

He questioned the possibility of measuring progress across the state and Eastern’s involvement in the state.

“I don’t know what’s really going to come out of this damn Pew project,” Lord said. “At the moment I have no intention of volunteering the institution.”