The Pros And Cons Of High-Stakes Testing

Education is one of the most significant things when it comes to making our children better leaders. In order to accomplish this goal there are many rules that are put into place. One of these rules is high-stakes testing. The controversy with high-stakes testing is that is it really helping the students or is it hurting the education system? In this paper I will discuss what high-stakes testing is, some pros and cons of high-stakes testing, and a way teachers can perhaps deal with high-stakes testing (High-Stakes Testing, 2014).
In the education world high-stakes testing is used to make decisions about schools, teachers, and students for the purpose of accountability. It is also to make sure that students are enrolled in a school that is
However, when it is all said and done it goes right back to providing the best education for students. Some of the pros of high-stakes testing consist of 1.)Holding teachers accountable. It is the teachers’ responsibility to insure that all students learn what they are expected to learn. 2.) Motivation of students. It seems that high-stakes testing motivates student to learn more, work harder, and to also take test more seriously. This motivation leads to higher student achievement. 3.) Uncovers educational areas that need to be restructured for improvement. 4.) Can provide easy understandable information for teachers and parents when it comes to the student’s performance and 5.) Informs teachers and parents that students are learning at a high level and are ready for adulthood. Just like pros there are also many cons of high-stakes testing (High-Stakes Testing,
Teachers are under pressure to do what it takes to raise test scores when it comes to high-stake testing, which leads to “teach to the test”. Because of this concern research has been done to see what can be done to help teachers teach and get their students ready for high-stakes testing. One way is through Community of Practice. It is believed that in order to face high-stakes testing teachers have to work together and community of practice helps teachers do just that. Community of practice symbolizes a group of teachers that meet frequently to discuss and build a sense of shared values, their goals, and their ideas about what is effective. Community of practice also allows questions to be raised and solved by teachers together. Community of practice has been proven to work and ultimately leads to teachers successfully advancing their teaching while at the same time helping students score high on high-stakes testing (Reich & Bally,