The Purpose of Tests

Why do teachers give students tests? Why are high stakes tests carried out for their students? The answers to these seem obvious: tests are given to see what students have learned. However, this only this is only a partial answer. Tests have many purposes in schools. It should be stressed that , whatever the tests, the processes and outcomes of tests should be for the benefit of the students and not the teacher, school, district, or state. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Students are usually the last elements to be taken into considerations in the planning, implementation and postmortem of the any testing  process.

                                                                                                            Adapted from:  Melissa Kelly