Imagine this, you’re a straight A high school student getting ready for college. You’ve been accepted to the university but when you arrive you realize that your academic performance is not where you thought it was. You are now forced to take remedial courses that you thought you were prepared for in high school. On the contrary, if you were tested in high school on your present academic standing and had an acknowledgement of your present status, you may have been able to receive tutoring or take enrichment classes before graduation. High-stakes testing is a way to ensure that students retain the information needed to succeed.
High-stakes testing improves students work efforts. As students strive to pass, they study harder; they retain more information, students are more attentive in class, and are more likely to complete their assignments. States who took the high school exit exam as a graduation requirement showed the most significant gain than states that required completion of a certain number of Carnegie unit courses and states requiring minimum competency exams. In New York, student’s showed the most significant gains, test scores were nearly 40% higher of the grade level equivalent greater in New York. In comparison to state-imposed Carnegie unit requirements had no effect on test score gains during high school, so, requiring students to take certain course does not improve their level of achievement. The fact of increased test scores shows that students are working harder because they are retaining the information as apposed to just learning it temporarily, because they know and hold the information they pass the test.
Since the tests are supposed to measure the full range of achievement in each subject, the exams contain more difficult questions and problems, because of this, teachers spend more time on cognitively demanding skills and topics. In California, exit exams show progress in student test scores, a state average of 75% in 1999 jumped to 20% in the present day when exit exams were implemented. On the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) science exam, 43% of Massachusetts’ fourth-graders, the highest percentage in the nation, scored at or above the proficient level and in eighth grade, 42% scored at or above proficient, tied for second best in the nation. Meaningful stakes are the direct cause of change in Massachusetts’s schools. Teachers are engaged in more professional development than ever before. Curriculum is changing to align with state standards. The results of a variety of assignments are available, are being widely used be educators, and are driving improvements. Everywhere, teaching strategies are being reconsidered and altered for greater efficiency.
When students begin to perform better on the tests, funding increases in some states. This creates better resources and a better learning environment. Studies show that students who take these exams have a greater chance of having access to science labs, devote more hours to math and science instruction, and provide after-school tutoring to more students. Surveys show that students with science classes and laboratories understand the subject more clearly, causing them to perform better on the science testing. This claim shows that when students are given labs to work in and conduct themselves in hands on activities, they tend to perform better on science testing because the states provide the schools with better resources so the students can perform better on the exit-exams.
Opponents believe that high-stakes tests will reduce the amount of students graduating. To reduce this problem we propose that students who don’t achieve well on the test, are not denied their diploma but shall receive enrichment courses before they are granted their diploma. This will ensure that the students are getting the information that they didn’t have that other students may have received to succeed in life.
In conclusion, there are many rewards when high stakes test are implemented. The most important is that all students will now be assured of having quality, high standard education they deserve.