High-stakes testing and students: Stopping or perpetuating a cycle of failure?

Abstract

As state-mandated standardized testing becomes an increasingly popular tool by which to make student-level high-stakes decisions such as promotion or graduation from high school, it is critical to look at such applications and their effects on students. Findings in this article suggest that non-White, non-Asian students, as well as students with special needs and English Language Learners, are among the groups most deeply affected by high-stakes testing. Test scores give us important information, but they do not give us all the information necessary to make critical decisions. Given their limited nature and the potentially adverse impacts they can have, using state-mandated large-scale testing for student-level high-stakes purposes is unadvisable.