High-Stakes Testing

After the implementation of the “No Child Left Behind Act” high risk standardized testing has become a pressure cooker of corruption in the United States due to often unrealistic expectations, abundant incentives, and harsh punishments placed upon educators and administrators, overall resulting in the essential need for reform. The concept that every student’s academic ability can be assessed by a single universal exam is a misguided notion.

Over the years our education system has changed greatly. Of course the changes that happen can bring negative and positive changes. One of the greatest chances in the education system is having mandate high stakes exams throughout the United States.

High stakes testing is a topic in which both Republicans and Democrats are against having and agree it should be taken out of the Education standards. Children spend more than 2 percent of classroom instruction time taking test and with this new move to limit school testing the goal is

The Washington Post published the story “2015 Superintendent of the Year: High-stakes testing is the ‘fool’s gold’ of accountability” by Valerie Strauss on August 27 about one superintendent’s discontent with constant “high stakes testing”. Strauss was covering the story of man who was named the “2015 American Association of School Administrators National Superintendent of the Year”, Philip D. Lanoue who is the superintendent of the Clarke County School District in Georgia, which is one of the most impecunious districts in the state. Lanoue believes that the constant pattern of standardized testing in schools is completely different from what he refers to as actual “meaningful assessment” and considers the tests to be unbeneficial for students.

There is a flip side to this though. Levitt makes note that people will try hard, if not harder, to cheat, rather than follow the rules, when he says, “Whatever the incentive, whatever the situation, dishonest people will try to gain an advantage by whatever means necessary.” If it is assumed that every student is a dedicated student, who is determined to pass the standardized test, then the idea that high-stake testing would motivate students to study more would be true. But let’s be honest, not every student is willing to put in extra time outside of the classroom to prepare for exams. The same type of thing applies to teachers; not every teacher is going to abide by the state standards and teach their students properly according to the curriculum. This is one of the reason cheaters exist. They want something for nothing. They want to sit back and put in little to no effort, but still have success to show for

(2011). Rational responses to high stakes testing: The case of curriculum narrowing and the harm that follows. Cambridge Journal of Education, 41(3), 287-302.

This study also stated that, “every standardized test has a certain “error of measurement” which means that a given score could actually be off by several points in either direction. High stakes, however, have single scores as the cut-off point. Those scores do not account for the inaccuracies that all test publishers acknowledge”(azstandards). There have been many studies in which students take the same test on different days, and their score varies greatly. High stakes testing does not give any consideration to these errors.

High stakes testing is a type of test that has significant consequences. For example, if a student passes this test, she/he will be able to practice a certain profession, go to college, or be qualified for a higher degree. However, if the student fails to pass this test, she/he will have to retake the course until they pass the test. Usually, it is used to take important decisions in one’s life. An example of a high stakes testing is the No Child Left Behind tests (Miller, Linn & Gronlund, 2013).

Cizek, Gregory J. "More Unintended Consequences of High-Stakes Testing." Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice 20.4 (2005): 19-27. Google Scholar. Web. 8 Mar. 2017. This source explores the negative critiques of standardized testing from within the education profession. The history of high stakes tests is described to provide background information on how testing practices have evolved. Various consequences addressed include: reduction of instruction time, neglect of teaching material not covered by the tests, instruction and assessment mirroring the tests, and negative effects on teacher morale and creativity. Cizek also takes time to address the time commitment of test taking. While multiple hours spent on one test is necessary in

Education keeps evolving through time. However, it has been stagnant lately. We are in the period where high-stakes tests are one of the largest aspects in education. It has been like that for a few decades now. A large group of people seem to think that this is the perfect time for change. There are a lot of arguments going around opposing the implementation of high-stakes testing and vice versa. While doing the synthesis paper and proposal, I have noticed that most sources tend to talk about the collateral damage of high-stakes testing instead of its perks. As a result, I decided to interview an admissions officer, because I needed to hear from someone that should support the use of high-stakes testing. I needed to be able to understand both

Nichols, Glass, and Berliner (2012) states that “high stakes testing is the process of attaching significant consequences to standardized test performance with the goal of incentivizing

At my high school, all students from 9 through 12-grade levels were required to take the Regents exam authorized by the state of New York. If students did not pass the Regents exam in June, their first time, and were forced to go to summer school and take the Regents again, and if they did not pass the test again they were held back a grade or they did not graduate with their class. Thus, it is hard to test students in this way since no one was taught the same way all 12 years or learned the same exact things. That’s not all, before taking the Regent exam in June, we had 4 district assessments each quarter. Higher amounts of testing will end up frustrating the students and they will feel tired when taking state tests. Thus, high-stakes testing is profoundly a mistaken approach of evaluating student’s

powerful impact on the academic achievement and success of all children by viewing them as at-promise rather than at-risk and preparing them to reach their full potential.

There are many different types of standardized tests used in schools around the country, but “high-stakes” achievement tests in US elementary and secondary schools have produced

High Stake Testing- According to our textbook, high stake testing involves all students including those with disabilities participating in a standardized summative common assessment, which is mandated by the federal government. (Salend, 2016, pg 454) These assessments are used to measure mastery of benchmarks in the curriculum. (Salend, 2016, pg 454) These assessments are used and analyzed in order to make important decisions. The results of high stake testing can be used to make decisions about a student’s education program and promotion. They often are used to measure teaching effectiveness. The use of high stake testing is highly controversial. Many argue these tests are not an accurate depiction of a student’s abilities. Not every student is a good test taker, and other means of assessments could be used to measure student’s skills and abilities. It may also cause pressure on students as well as cause testing anxiety and lack of motivation in some students. (Salend, 2016, pg 455) Other consequences of high stake testing is that is puts too much reliance on a test to measure teacher effectiveness. It also puts a lot of pressure on teachers since they are often evaluated based on the results of students performance on the test. This may lead to teacher’s teaching to the test and may limit their creativity and time spent on other content outside of the test. There are alternative testing assessments and testing accommodations available for students with disabilities.