Council of Rectors creates commission to define changes to the PSU

28/03/2013
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The organization unanimously approved the formation of a committee of experts, a task for which the Ministry of Education offered its technical participation.

One of its first tasks will be to define a short-, medium-, and long-term timeline for identifying improvements to the test, based on the Pearson Report and reports generated within the CRUCH (Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities). This commission will develop proposals for improving the 2013-2014 PSU (University Selection Test).

The Council of Rectors (CRUCH) unanimously decided to form a commission of experts who will be in charge of proposing changes to the University Selection Tests (PSU) and their associated processes, taking into account the recommendations delivered at the beginning of the year by the Pearson Report.

The decision was made after reviewing the three reports commissioned during the last session from the relevant technical bodies: the Technical Advisory Committee, the Department of Educational Evaluation, Measurement and Registration (DEMRE) of the University of Chile, and Pearson's technical counterpart, a team led by María Elena González. These reports all agree on the possibility of implementing some changes soon and evaluating the technical feasibility of the more complex ones.

“We know this is an important issue for students, their families, and the institutions associated with the Admissions System. Hence the urgency and relevance of forming this group of experts who will evaluate the changes to be implemented and their timelines,” stated the Executive Vice President of the Council of Rectors, Juan Manuel Zolezzi, adding that the body is aware of the impact the PSU (University Selection Test) has on students, so the changes will be made gradually and will be communicated in a timely manner.

In response to the Council's proposal, the Ministry of Education offered its participation in the expert group, one of whose missions is to define what changes can be implemented for the 2013-2014 process.

Conclusions from the technical reports

Regarding the reports, the first was prepared by the PSU Technical Advisory Committee (CTA), headed by academics David Bravo and Jorge Manzi. This report lists the main comments and findings of the evaluation, considering both the positive and critical assessments made, and recommends that the CRUCH (Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities) create a political-technical body to evaluate the implementation of the changes.

The second report was presented by Eduardo Rodríguez, director of DEMRE. This report indicated that changes could be implemented between 2014 and 2016, should the Council of Rectors make a decision.

Among the most relevant changes to be evaluated, he pointed out the redesign of the piloting process, the increase in the number of anchoring questions in the pretest, conducting studies to evaluate the feasibility of three tests in Science, and evaluating the feasibility of implementing Pearson's recommendation regarding students in Technical Professional establishments.

Finally, María Elena González, who led the team that was Pearson's technical counterpart, pointed out in her presentation the importance of separating the recommendations into three categories: the technical aspects that were objected to, the suggestions for improvement, and the recommendations that involve policy aspects, which involve greater complexity.