High-Stakes Tests: Another View

Why do we need intellectuals? To think deeply about things.

If you'd like to read an in-depth view of high-stakes exams from a fresh perspective, Ellen Brantlinger's article in a 2005 issue of Workplace is worth the time. Brantlinger looks at high-stakes tests and asks the question, "Who Benefits?"

Here' a short sample:

Until recently, students who stuck it out in school and successfully completed certain required courses, which frequently were adapted to their own achievement levels, received a high school diploma. As such, the majority of students graduated who went to school for twelve years. Regardless of their post-school plans, graduation has been perceived of as a rite of passage to adulthood for American adolescents. Recently, things have changed. An increasing number of States have instituted high-stakes graduate exit exams (also known as gateway, certification, and competency exams) which limit secondary students' eligibility for a diploma to those who pass the test....

....Because it is clear that social hierarchies are created or intensified through official high-stakes mandates, I identify losers (who fail the test and remain at the bottom of hierarchies) and, more importantly, winners, who retain or improve their position at the top of hierarchies. I also maintain that dominant groups set normative standards and use certain liberal and neoliberal ideologies to contrive legitimacy for the tests and for social hierarchies generally.