Effects of high-stakes standardized testing on the curriculum and instruction

Effects of high-stakes standardized testing on the curriculum and instruction

Consequences of high stake testing on curriculum and instruction

High stake or standardized testing is a method of testing the abilities or knowledge of the student or learner in which a failure lead to severe consequences upon the student. Testing of abilities and knowledge of students is an essential requirement in the academics and without the evaluation of their learning they are not considered as eligible for promotion or admission. The testing methods have been modified and updated regularly on order to meet the demands and needs of increasing the quality of education in the institutions. The efforts towards effective testing processes have resulted in the formation of standardized testing which involves high stake testing procedure. Initially, it was considered to be a significant tool that provides positive effects on the education policy makers and managers.

It was also considered as a cost effective method of conducting tests. The implication of these tests started with an increasing rate. Now, the testing process through standardized testing procedure is an industry that costs thousands of millions of dollars and a vast amount of time of the students, teachers and the administrative staff. The policy makers have imposed the use of standardized testing due to the meaningful standards formulated through these high stake tests. They believe that the students, teachers, schools and school system can easily aspire to the uniform standards of testing and it becomes easy for them to assess the accountability purposes. They also believe that the standardized testing is the method that combined with effective incentives and benefits could lead to a powerful and meaningful change engine in the academic and educational institutions (Wiliam, 2010).

Where, the standardized testing is considered as a beneficial tool by many, the recent changes and reforms in the education policy has raised several questions regarding the value and validity of the traditional ways of standardized testing procedures and the standardized or high stake testing has become a vast area of debate. Researchers and academicians have tried to evaluate and assess the importance, benefits and effectiveness of standardized testing and their consequences on the students, teachers, school and school system. According to the studies of Cannell (1987), Linn, Grace and Sanders, (1989) and Shepherd (1989), it has been identified that whether the improvements in the performance of test score results in the improvement in learning process of the student or not. Thus, raising questions regarding the learning process of the students and the actual benefits gained from the standardized testing procedure.

It has been observed form the studies of Shepherd (1989) Baker (1989) and Herman (1989) that the standardized testing procedure cannot be consider as effective e in boosting the learning process of the students because it has limited content and course which makes it narrowed content. These tests match with the instruction and curriculum but do not takes into account the critical thinking process of the ...