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High-Stakes Testing Reflection

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I grew up Loudoun County, one of the richest counties, where education was extremely important. My education was centered around being the best we could be, which often meant getting good grades and passing standardized exams. Throughout my schooling, we took approximately thirty-four standardized exams beginning in 3rd grade. At the time, I never thought anything of it, it was the usual. After taking this course, I began to reflect upon my education and realized how much the accountability movement impacted my education, specificity high-stakes testing. The goal of the accountability movement was to create equitable education for students, specifically set by the No Child Left Behind Act. High-stakes testing is the main element of the accountability movement because …show more content…
There are many characteristics that contribute to the accountability movement, based on my personal experience the impact of high-stakes testing resonates the most with me. The three elements to high-stakes accountability that Gunzenahuser (2006) mentioned in terms of the philosophy of education are the standards and measurements created, the narrowing of instruction and curriculum, and the normalization of the students.
Every class in grade school the Standards of Learning (SOL) were listed in the syllabus and typically on the board. Specifically, in Virginia, all SOL exams are reviewed twice by Virginia classroom teachers (Cite pdf). The standards were determined by the state accountability system. After the readings in this course, it became clear that the standards set are posed as a democratic process, but in reality, there are policy restraints and limitations. The teachers are included in deciding the curriculum and creating standards with limitations in their discussions limiting educational opportunities and outcomes (NCLB and Gunzenahuser, 2006). This helps contribute to the hidden curriculum that is developed in result of high-stakes testing placing an inflated

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