High Stakes Testing

829 Words2 Pages

It is not about who runs the race the fastest, but who crosses the finish line. While facing many of life’s obstacles some people have ran across this objective, but unfortunately when it comes to the focus of education from Pre-K to 12, the objective does not exist. Modern public school systems have structured their curriculum to fit standards of assessments that affects the continuation of a student to a higher grade as well as the school. The form of test, high-stakes tests plays a vital role in student promotion. Likewise, the school faces consequences for insufficient passing rates. Because of the standardized tests being in place many students who come from different environments or backgrounds are affected as they have a disadvantage …show more content…

These tests are mandated by people who sit on the Board of Education, and the federal, state, and local government agencies. Annually, institutions are evaluated based on the outcome of these tests, and on a yearly basis either a reward, punishment, advancement, or increase of compensation is retrieved. The Institute for Democratic Education in America (IDEA) acknowledges the downfall of high-stakes testing in institutions. “Yet it's important to remember that high-stakes standardized tests are only one form of accountability, and highly flawed one at that” (High Stakes, n.d). This proves that there is something unsturdy about the tests being inputted into the …show more content…

Some subject materials require a substantial amount of time in order to master all concepts and comprehend them. On the contrary, there are subject matters that do not require a long time to understand but is usually stemmed from a greater knowledge. Unfortunately, due to high-stakes tests, many educators find it more difficult to teach to understand, thus leaving students in a worse situation that minimizes their capability of doing well on a test meant to challenge the student’s thinking skills. “Nevertheless, some educators claim that teaching for understanding can, at one and the same time, be the most effective way to boost test performance in any case. The obvious difficulty here is that teachers under pressure from high-stakes testing find this claim hard to accept” (Davis,

Open Document