Burnt at the High Stakes

Abstract

Standardized tests fail to assess the skills and dispositions that matter most, whereas norm-referenced and multiple-choice tests are particularly inadequate as indicators of student learning or school quality. High-stakes testing, which relies on rewards and punishments to increase scores, creates a system that is unfair as well as destructive to learning. Schools that manage to improve their test results may well be doing so at the expense of meaningful instruction, in the process driving good educators out of the profession. Several common defenses of high-stakes testing are considered in this article, including claims that this strategy is necessary for addressing educational inequities. It is argued that an emphasis on tougher standards, accountability, and standardized testing is uniquely harmful to low-income and minority students.