Bias High Stake Assessments High Stake Assessments

¶ … Bias

High stake assessments

High stake assessments are purposed to improve the achievement of students. They are aimed at holding individuals accountable for their performance in the tests. However, the system is far from achieving its goals. The high stake assessment does not improve learning in fact the system creates disparities in the system. Only a few students benefit from these assessments while the rest do not get any benefit from the system. The 2010 college bound seniors average SAT scores shows the students performed differently. The performance of the students was categorized according to the age, ethnicity and income. These assessments are bias when issues of ethnicity, socioeconomic status are addressed. The differences in the scores are a reflection of the difference in the educational opportunities and resources available for the students (Neill, 1998).

The students in the different categories performed differently due to the stereotype threat which the high stake assessment causes. The assessments cause a positive or negative stereotype on particular groups of students who take the tests. This stereotype threat may lead to the students in the group living up or down to the expectations and hence leading to the students performing the way they do in the tests. Therefore, these tests are not effective when it comes to learning improvement as they are highly associated with a stereotype threat. In most cases the test questions in high stake assessments are not relevant and they are often not a true reflection of the background of the student taking the tests. This can lead to poor results from the test and hence no improvement in learning as a result of the tests. There is also little or no access to preparatory course. In most cases the preparatory courses are costly and are unavailable. This leads to poor performance in the tests and no improvement in learning among the students. Neill, 1998). There is also insufficient educational training among some students in some areas where there are less qualified teachers; classes are overcrowded, school facilities that are dilapidated and irrelevant curriculum. Students learning in such conditions are also expected to take the same assessments withy others who have better facilities. The students who have insufficient educational training will not perform as well as those who have access to better facilities.

Standard driving curricula

A standard driving curricula is a clear path to the school improvement and student learning. This is because the focus on the curricula will be improvement of schools and student learning. There will therefore be devising of other better ways of assessing students not like the high stake assessments. The methods of student assessment under the standard driving curricula will focus on student learning and improvement of schools. This will lead to an overall improvement in learning in students as the assessments will focus more on the improvement of learning and not just assessing the students.

Changes regarding tests