Burnt at the high stakes

Standardized tests fail to assess the skills and dispositions that matter m ost, whereas norm-referenced and multiple-choice tests are particularly ina dequate as indicators of student learning or school quality. High-stakes te sting, which relies on rewards and punishments to increase scores, creates a system that is unfair as well as destructive to learning. Schools that ma nage to improve their test results may well be doing so at the expense of m eaningful instruction, in the process driving good educators out of the pro fession. Several common defenses of high-stakes testing are considered in t his article, including claims that this strategy is necessary for addressin g educational inequities. It is argued that an emphasis on tougher standard s, accountability, and standardized testing is uniquely harmful to low-inco me and minority students.