Assessing Achievement Versus High-Stakes Testing: A Crucial Contrast

Assessing achievement for samples of students can produce useful information about what students know and can do and about performance changes over time. In contrast, high-stakes testing of all students overemphasizes limited aspects of education at the expense of arguably more important goals. High-stakes tests can entail harmful direct effects for some individuals and harmful side effects for others. Illustrations are cited. Student engagement in school appears to be a key element of effective schooling. Adopting measures of student engagement along with measures of achievement would provide a balance between two important goals of education.