High-Stakes Testing

The high-stakes nature of the exam, combined with its inaccurately low evaluation of the performance of ELL students, unfairly punishes these students, who may be forced to repeat a grade or even barred from graduation. Many schools flunk students as a response to low standardized test scores (“Testing and Grade Retention”), and more than half of the states require high school students to pass an exit exam in order to graduate (“High school exit exams”). Obviously, few students, regardless of their linguistic status, wish to face the ignominy of repeating a grade or not walking on graduation day; thus, these high-stakes tests put tremendous negative pressure on the students. The body of criticism against the high-stakes nature of such exams …show more content…
During the era of NCLB, many states implemented English-only high school exit exams, which made English-only education the de facto language policy in American schools (Menken ch. 5). Under the still-developing ESSA guidelines, states are encouraged to implement exams in languages other than English; however, the law does not mandate the states to do so (Strauss). Regardless of whether translated exams are mandated or not, they offer no assistance to those whose native language is not offered as language option on the exams. Although, for reasons mentioned previously, the benefit of translated exams for ELLs is questionable for ELLs taught under either an English-only or bilingual curriculum, the language(s) that the tests are offered in frequently dictates the type of curriculum that an ELL would be taught under. Given the high stakes of these exams, the decision to align the language of instruction and testing makes sense. Many bilingual teachers have been observed teaching monolingually, whether in English or the student’s native language, in order to ensure that the language of instruction matches the language of the test (Menken ch. 6). For the multitude of students who either have no option of taking a test in their native language or have no access to a teacher who may instruct them in their native tongue, they are more often than not stuck with an English-only curriculum. Historically, the implementation of English-only policies, such as those imposed in Ireland and South Africa, has lead to the diminishment and eventual loss of minority languages (Menken ch. 1). Since language is characteristically interwoven with culture, linguistic loss leads to cultural erosion. While social