High Stakes Assessments
Preet Dhakaalia
M6U1A3
High stake testing… what??
High-stakes testing
is defined as the practice of basing major decisions on individual student
performance, school performance and school personnel on a single assessment.[1]
The Single assessment is usually a standardized test which everyone
aspiring for the same end , has to take.
Tests are called
"high-stakes" when they used to make major decisions about a student,
such as high school graduation or grade promotion. To be high stakes, a test
has to be very important in the decision process or be able to override other
information (for example, a student does not graduate if s/he does not pass the
test regardless of how well she/he did in school).[2]
High
Stake Assessments… Good??
There is a reason why high stake
testing has become a major international assessment method for nearly all kinds
of admissions be it be college admission or school. It is the sole method with which
students are recognized to be capable or not capable to take a step further in
education. We cannot possible think students given specific projects to clear
for admission in American universities, we cannot even imagine any kind of
authentic assessment for the students around the world, which they can do and
get admissions in colleges offering engineering or medicines. So, one this can
be said that standardized testing is the only way to put everyone in the same
pot. There arises question as to the fairness of these testing techniques. It
might not be fair to students who are not well equipped to give these exams,
but then we need to change the economic and other factors leading up to the
inequalities. The advantages of high stake testing :
- Tests are based on clearly defined standards and provide important information on students' performance growth and declines
- Tests can highlight gaps in an individual student's knowledge, classroom achievement gaps or school achievement gaps
- Tests may also motivate students to improve their performance, especially when test results are tied to high school diplomas and grade promotion [3]
High
Stake Assessments… Bad??
High stake testing takes a lot out of
the student. Be it be time, Energy and so much more. It is also biased in many
ways like everyone not on the same economic level, language level and other
levels. Thus disadvantages of high stake testing :
- The tests may lead to inaccurate inferences of student performance, due to non-test factors, such as anxiety and motivation, of the test-taker
- Teachers and educators are burdened with more standards to teach and end up teaching to the tests (as opposed to more individualized curriculum to meet student needs)
- High-stakes testing does not assess higher-level critical thinking skills
- Since each state can determine standards, different test criteria may lead to different overall conclusions on student and school achievement and performance
- There is an emphasis placed on punishing lower-performing schools and personnel and not enough emphasis on helping those schools improve [3]
High
Stake Assessments… Ghana
In Ghana local school, high stake
testing occurs at two levels. Once in year nine, wherein if student do not pass
the check points they will not be promoted to senior school. Second time, in
year 12, which they have to clear for going to the university. Only about five
percent, of the right age group, go to the university every year. This is
mainly due to economic factors. Many of them could not pass the entrance test
and many, who could, go directly into employment [4].
High
stake Assessment …. Al Ryan International School
Al Ryan
International School is the school wherein I am doing my clinical. Here is high
stake assessment is at grade 9 and Grade 13. Also, Only in grade 9 , the
standardized test determine whether the student should or should not go to
grade 10. In rest of the grades, whether a student passes the standardized test
or not, the student is allowed to move to the next grade. Therefore they are
not taken to be high stake assessments.
In every grade there are project and
formative assessment that teachers do formally. And the final grades are the
culmination of all of them. Even when it is an international school in every
sense, but the policy of no child left behind is not literally followed in many
senses. Firstly, there does not seem to any RTIs for weak students except for
in English. Secondly, since not interventions are in place to help low aptitude
students, they are left behind in grade 9, if they do not pass the checkpoints.
Conclusion
High stake standardized testing might have loads of
disadvantages but it is still a “Necessary evil”. Like I mentioned earlier, the
governments and the schools need to make sure that all the students of their
country are fully equipped to take these high stake assessments. If any strata
of society is exempted from these assessments and still given a footing in
higher education be it be higher grade of school year or university level, the
whole society will suffer. If a student is not economically sound to prepare
for this assessment or a student is not sound in English language and thus is
exempted from this, the student will never be up to the mark to be knowledgeable
enough to perform what he is being trained for. Will anyone of us like to go to
a doctor who did not pass any high stake testing because of his economic
condition??? so, till the time we devise a better way to test aptitude of all the studetns on some same level, we will have to live with high stake assessments.
4.
https://www.justlanded.com/english/Ghana/Ghana-Guide/Education/Tertiary-education-in-Ghana
