High Stakes Testing Issue

ACCOUNTABILITY HIGH STAKES TESTING - IMPACT ON THE QUALITY OF EDUCATIONJanuary 2007There has been considerable debate on the touch on of game stakes riddleing on the overall whole tone of tenet method . Additionally with focus being turned on reservation educators more accountable for students learning , as determined by students feat on such(prenominal) tests , increasingly more narrate is pointing to the harmful effects of those tests . Though some educators still arrest that high stakes tests could improve on the quality of fostering , there have been too much negative reports on their disadvantages for such a position to be agreeable . office is similarly aimed to ensure this end but I too believe that both can prove harmful to the quality of educationHigh Stakes tests are usually standardized tests that are administered by sources external to the educational environment in which learning takes erupt . Such tests , an example of which is the SAT , are characteristically administered at a single sitting to all examinees The inwardness examined on such tests is usually ground on a cosmopolitan curriculum from which classroom teachers would have constructed their unit and slighton plans . What makes such tests high-stake is non the instrument that is used but the decisions that are made based on the results of such testsHigh stakes standardized tests often impact instructional decisions negatively . Poor performance of students on such tests is usually assumed to mean poor performance of the teacher . Teachers , under threat of accountability , attempt to improve their performance by adopting measures that ensure that more students pass , even if that nub ignoring the general educational objectives prescribed by the curriculumWorthen (1993 ) makes the point that the pressures incident high-stakes-tests result more often in other , less beneficial practices and outcomes . Teachers limit how much material they expose students to by just teaching what they feel would be tested . Worthen calls this teaching to the test Quality is thereby sacrificed .

Worthen Spandel (1991 ) further add that the content of such tests are often mismatched with the content evince in a school s curriculum and classrooms (p . 66 . up to now where the teacher attempts to stick to the curriculum high-stakes-tests end up reflecting notwithstanding to a slight degree what was actually covered by the teacher in the classroomAdditionally Worthen (1993 ) highlights one serious consequence of basing all important(p) decisions on test scores . When schools were being held accountable in the 1970s and thereby required to demonstrate achievement via test scores , it was noted that , when issued the minimum acceptable standards of achievement , schools take these as the maximum competencies they were aiming for . Schools basically aimed to satisfy only the make out out standards and hardly attempted to raise performance beyond those minimal requirements . Obviously the quality of education is compromised in such a case and students are robbed of the opportunity to excelMoreover , with new research encouraging multicultural classrooms it would be assumed that the creators of test instruments also consider the diversity of the individuals who sit these important tests . Worthen Spandel (1991 ) observe...If you want to survive a full essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com

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