By Zalino Bona
A high-stakes test, as
defined in the Glossary of Education Reform, is “any test used to make
important decisions about students, educators, schools, or districts, most
commonly for the purpose of accountability.”
High Stakes tests have become a
hot topic in educational circles in many countries as stake-holders and others
in the field of education are getting increasingly concerned about the effect
these tests have on students, teachers, and schools. In many Asian countries,
where good results in these tests open doors to good colleges, it is expected
that students will be put under a lot of pressure to do well. Teachers and
schools also come under immense pressure because the results of their students
are taken as an indication of the quality of teachers and schools.
In countries like India and Korea,
where the pressure is very high on students to perform well, there are
reportedly increasing cases of suicides among young people. (MaCaskill and
Ashreena, 2014, Voices of Youth, n.d.) Family, school, and the society’s
expectations along with their individual aspirations put a lot of pressure on
many young people. These added to lack of proper emotional and psychological
support lead many young people to take their lives when they do not do well in
their tests.
In the United States, according to
Popham, “the nation's public schools are evaluated annually under the
provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act,” which puts educators in
public schools “under tremendous pressure to improve their students' scores on
whatever NCLB tests their state has chosen.” (Popham, 2005) “These tests are
tied to consequences for districts, schools and teachers as well as students.”
(Kamenetz, 2015). Great pressure is put on teachers and schools to perform at a
high level. As a result, you hear stories of teachers who are “tempted to adopt
unethical practices during the administration or scoring of accountability
tests” (Popham, 2005), or of “the entire school experience being distorted by these tests because
the school is worried only about kids who are just on the edge of passing or
failing the tests.” (Kamenetz, 2015) With
these examples of what Kamenetz calls “perverse response to
incentives,” it is no wonder that students, parents, and educators in some
countries, and specifically in the United States, are asking serious questions
about the tests their children are taking.
However, these high stakes test are seen in a
positive light in many countries. In an international school in the Middle
East, tests like the SAT, AP, TOEFL, etc. are offered, but not required. Only
students who want to get into colleges in the United States take them. For
these students who need good scores to be admitted into good colleges, these high-stakes tests are seen as opportunities. The students take responsibility for these test, and
they usually perform well because the outcomes affect their future. In these
cases, the tests do not put a lot of pressure on teachers or the school because
the results are not tied to consequences for teachers or the school. Students at
the elementary level take some tests, like the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (which
was recently changed to MAP test), but as the consequences are not very high
(The results do not contribute to student’s final grade, or affect
sanctions/funding for the school), the pressure to perform is not very great.
Teachers would spend a week or so, going over some concepts in their classes
(especially concepts they would be covering after the tests), but they are not
as big a deal as they seem to be in some other countries.
In an international school in India, till recently,
all students were required to take high stakes tests like GCSE, AP, SAT, etc.
However, as the school’s focus is changing and moving towards real-life
educational experiences, and not so much on how well a student can perform in a
test, these high stakes tests are no longer mandatory. They are taken only by
students who choose to do so. And as most students from this school go to the
US or the UK for higher studies, and others into prestigious colleges in India,
the tests are a big deal for them and the outcomes of these tests affect them
greatly. For instance, a student who wanted to get into the London School of
Economics needed to get a score of 5 in five subjects in the AP exams, so the
stakes were extremely high for him, and he was under a lot of pressure to reach
that goal. However, for teachers and the school, the pressure was not as great.
In cases like these, students take responsibility for their own performance.
With the
negative rap high stakes test are getting in some countries, I think we,
as educators, need to be careful about how we approach and interpret these
tests. “Tests, along
with student grades and teacher evaluations, can provide critical measures of
students' skills, knowledge, and abilities.” (APA n.d.) ”It's what allows you to get outside of your one
individual school, and be able to answer the question, 'How is my son or
daughter doing compared to other kids across the entire state,'" says
Zurkowski, the Executive Director of Assessment for the Colorado Department of
Education.
Tests like the Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA) are helpful because they help countries to see where their
students are in comparison to students in other educational systems. PISA tests
are different from other tests in that they test students’ ability to apply
what they learn in schools. They test “if students can use their learning in
real life situations and problems” (Edu Skills OECD, 2011). PISA’s
results help governments rethink their policies to improve their students’
performance in school. The look at their educational system and compare them
with others to see how they can improve their programs. PISA’s aim is to help
governments to use their survey findings to improve their own teaching and
student performance. (Edu Skills, 2011) If tests can be used to help policy
makers to make good decisions regarding the education of their children, I
think that is a positive use of test results.
In conclusion, I think what is important is that we
have a clear and specific purpose for including these tests in our educational
system. Whether we see them as problems or as opportunities would depend on how we use them. While it is true
that a school’s test scores say something important about its academic success, scores
do not provide the whole story.” (GreatSchools, 2013). We
also need to remember that not all students are good test takers. “Many
students are affected by test anxiety or do not show their learning well on a
standardized test, resulting in inaccurately lower scores.” (Fairtest, 2007)
So, high stakes tests alone cannot be taken as an indicator of teacher or
school quality. However, if test results give
classroom teachers important information on how well individual students are
learning and provide feedback to the teachers themselves on their teaching
methods and curriculum materials (APA, n.d.), and if it is true
that they can provide useful information that can be used to inform
instruction, then
I would say it is worth hanging on to these tests. And until educators
and policy makers come up with a better option, I think high stakes tests are
not going anywhere any time soon.
References:
Appropriate use of high-stakes testing in our nation's schools. (n.d..)
Retrieved from
http://www.apa.org/pubs/info/brochures/testing.aspx
Erdahl, Kent. (2014, March 29). Parents protest against standardized testing by opting
kids out. Retrieved from
http://kdvr.com/2014/03/27/parents-protest-against-standardized-testing-by-opting-kids-out/
The
Dangerous Consequences of High-Stakes Standardized Testing. (2007). Retrieved
from: http://fairtest.org/dangerous-consequences-highstakes-standardized-tes
International comparisons of achievement. (n.d.).
National Center for Educational Statistics.
Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=1Kamanetz, Anya. (2015, January 22). The Past, Present And Future Of High-Stakes Testing
Retrieved from: http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/01/22/377438689/the-past-present-and-future-of-high-stakes-testing
MacAskill, A. and Ashreena, T. (2014, December 11). In modernising India,
suicide is on the rise among young. Retrieved from: http://in.reuters.com/article/india-suicide-idINKBN0JO2A420141211
PISA - Measuring student success around the
world. (2011). EduSkills.
Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1I9tuScLUA
The secret to comparing schools based on test
scores. (2013, Feb 5). Great chools. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhRHnXZGG3M
Student suicides in South Korea. (n.d.). Retrieved from
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