High Stakes Testing Essay

An Analysis in Modern-Day American Teaching

There is no debate that there is a lot to improve when it comes to the American education system. When it comes to international rankings, the United States is falling behind the rest of the world in education (Amadeo, 2022). In math and science, the test scores of many other first-world countries are improving, whereas there has not been a detectable difference in U.S. math scores since 2003 or science scores since 2006. There are certainly many factors contributing to this, but one of the biggest issues facing our nation when it comes to education is teacher quality and retention. Teacher quality is unsurprisingly crucial when it comes to student achievement. However, “14% of new teachers resign

They are used for accountability and can decide which schools and teachers are effectively doing their job. Alternatively, low-stakes tests are used to measure academic achievement and adjust teaching/learning practices. The difference between high and low stakes testing is not the type of test itself, rather the impact of the results. For students, high-stakes testing can be used to determine whether they can move on to the next grade level. For schools, high-stakes tests can have an impact on decisions for penalties, like negative ratings, staff replacement, or even the closing of the school. When NCLB was passed in 2001, it required states not only to develop learning standards but also standardized tests to track performance. NCLB also required states to track results by subgroups of students, such as ESL students, minority students, students with special needs, etc. to track school equity and improvement over time for groups that are often left behind by the system. These reported test results are used to label schools by level of proficiency, which can determine the level of government intervention and funding they receive (Sabbott,

Throughout the Winter Seminar course, we spoke to many D.C. professionals in the education field and the number one issue that kept coming up among speakers was the impact that COVID-19 had on students and teachers. Multiple speakers said that because students were forced to stay at home, learning was significantly decreased, specifically with elementary-aged students learning to read. Notably, two speakers separately said that educators would spend the next five to ten years trying to close the gaps in learning caused by COVID-19. In addition to the significant literacy gap caused by the pandemic though, another issue most mentioned by speakers was the affect the pandemic had on the mental health of students and teachers. Teachers, on top of fighting their own COVID-related personal battles have had to act as a major source for student and family emotional support, which has made the teaching role even more