Standardized Test, Schorling-Clark-Potter Arithmetic Test

By the 1920s, mathematics educators increasingly turned to standardized tests as a way to measure what students knew, to predict what they could learn, and to determine where they had difficulties. This test had sections on addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The final two sections were on fractions, decimals, and percentages; and on a combination of problems. The authors were Raleigh Schorling (1887–1950), John R. Clark (1887–1986), and Mary A. Potter (1889–1993?). World Book Company published the four page leaflet in 1928. Versions of the test would be published for decades. The Schorling-Clark-Potter Arithmetic Test (Form A-Revised) was intended for use in grades five through twelve. The test consists of 100 questions.

By 1926, when the test was first published, Schorling and Clark had obtained their PhDs from Teachers College of Columbia University. After earning his doctorate, Clark headed the mathematics department of the Chicago State Teacher’s College, and then in 1920 returned to teach in the Department of Mathematics Education at Teachers College. He remained there until his retirement in 1952.

Schorling taught at the Lincoln School of Teachers College. He left in 1923 to become the first principal of the University High School at the University of Michigan, and completed his Teachers College doctorate in 1924. He remained at Ann Arbor for the rest of his career, serving as well as a professor of education at the university. Mary Potter obtained her undergraduate degree from Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1913. She taught in several Wisconsin school districts, settling in Racine by 1920 and living there the rest of her working life.

At the Lincoln School, Schorling and Clark worked to reform arithmetic education by emphasizing the affairs of daily life. Their efforts led them to author new textbooks as well as new tests. Schorling, Clark, and Potter were all active in the establishment of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in 1920.

Born in upstate New York, the donor of this example of the test Ruth Estelle Myer (1915-2001) graduated from Hunter College and then moved to Washington, D.C., in 1940. She worked in the War Department, the Department of Commerce, and the Civil Service Commission (now the Office of Personnel Management) for about forty years. Her area of expertise was psychological testing.

Dt. Myer obtained her M.A. from George Washington University in 1946 and her PhD. in psychology from American University in 1963. This is her personal collection of paper-and-pencil psychological tests. Topics of the tests range from mental ability to scholarly achievement to personality to occupational ratings. Dates range from 1928 to 1952.

References:

Michael Ackerman, “Mental Testing and the Expansion of Educational Opportunity,” History of Education Quarterly 35, no. 5 (Fall 1995): 279-300.

“Ruth E. Myer, Government Worker,” Washington Post, May 8, 2001.

Accession file.

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