Schools Should Reevaluate High-Stakes Testing In Schools

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High-stake standardized testing is a controversial topic. Teachers and students either adapt well to the testing or struggle to find the good that comes from it. High-stake testing is in effect to determine where students stand. It shows the state if the teachers are ready to teach and if the studnets have tetained the information taught. High-stake testing is suppose to help teachers and students become well equipped in the future. However, it seems to contradict what teachers are trying to establish for students. Schools should reevaluate high-stake testing because tests are not accurately graded, tests are intelligence based, and tests creates curriculum conformity. High-stake tests are not accurately graded and are inconsistent. Students’ futures are in the hands of these unbiased scorers, yet these employees have an …show more content…

These tests control what and how instructors teach. In addition, the students are limited in what they can write about. Au and Gourd give an example stating “…teachers report that how they teach writing, as well as the types of writing students are asked to perform are being controlled by high-stakes tests” (Au and Gourd 14-19). Instructors are showing their students a certain format that will be found on the test, instead of teaching them a writing style that can help through the years of essays to come. They are not giving studnets the tools on how to write, but they are showing the studnets how to pass a test. Mike Watanbe, a researcher, found that “…writing has “become less” like a real writer writes’ in that the focus of writing has shifted to form over content and product or process” (cited in Au, Gourd 14-19). These mandated tests causes the voive of the studnets to not be heard. The content inside the essays have lost the meaning and is all about the product and to pass the test. Therefore, high-stake testing should be reevaluated to save the meaning of