Introduction: High Stake Assessment are very often targeted by teachers and parents for the possible negative implications they could have on teaching and learning. Fear arise easily concerning the consequences of such test on students and teachers. Parents and teachers often argue toward the possible ways those test could affect teaching time, students anxiety, and the quality of the curriculum. The facts and reality behind those arguments seems somewhat different. When looking at empirical research, little to no evidence proves any of the previous statements to be real and even quite the opposite. Some of the research conducted by Ruth Mitchell from the Center for Public Education shows that “testing could increase the amount of learning” and that “teachers can both prepare students for tests and teach them what they need to know, if curriculum is aligned with standards and tests and if data from the tests is used to refine curriculum”.

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  1. The Harare International School is an IB world School, that follow the IB program and examinations for the International Baccalaureate, as a matter of facts, their scores at the IB exam for the Diploma Program is then compared to students from different IB schools. The international school also use the MAP test, or Measure of Academic Progress in Literacy, Science and Mathematics and participate in the ISA test, International School Assessment in Reading, Writing, Mathematics and Scientific Literacy.

The Map test is given to every other grade, each of the 4 test takes about 1 hour and is spread throughout a week in September. The ISA test is given to students every other year alternating with the Map test and is also spread through a week. The school doesn’t use the results of those test to reward or evaluate teachers nor are those test part of the evaluation that make decision on students moving to the next grade. Because of their policy toward the test, it doesn’t bring much pressure to students and teachers, even sometimes the opposite. According to teachers many students don’t take those tests very seriously. Because those test are not link to the curriculum there is no direct link between the teaching and the testing and therefor I am not able to say if teacher are teaching to the test or not. The results are mainly and almost exclusively used to monitor students progress and have lead to implement change in some department. For example a different math program in Primary has been started as result of students low performance when entering 6th grade.

On the other hand, the IB exam brings a different approach. The test is not only use to assess students performance and account for some university entrance but is also part of the marketing arguments used by IB schools when recruiting students and teachers. Therefor teachers and students report a more important pressure toward the last two years of the program, the Diploma Program.

For students, the pressure is directly link to their future, and their parents expectation. Since the IB doesn’t necessarily involve their acceptance to Colleges or Universities, although it is certainly a positive addition, not all student take the test. Students are, encouraged to but not required to take the IB. This involves a certain selection of potential successful students by teachers and an exclusion of less probable successful students.

For teacher pressure is high, their students performance is definitely more linked to their teacher evaluation, although not officially. Teachers report that both parents and administration are demanding proof of teaching for the test. It is indeed the main objective of those final two years and a lot of time is spent preparing students for the test and it’s expectations.

  1. The past international school I have been teaching at, the Colegio Albania in Northern Colombia, was a rather small IB world school. The school was also using the MAP testing for measuring their students progress. Because those two schools have a lot in common I have decided that a comparison of both system would be fair and appropriate.

I have observed similar practices in both schools regarding the MAP test. The exams were distributed on 3 or 4 days, with one test of one hour for the students each day. This, based on my research is part of the practice recommended by the Northwest Evaluation Association in charge of the MAP. Similarly, the school didn’t accounted the result as part of the decision to retain or pass students to another grade. Therefor, very little pressure was put on students to succeed at those tests. While the school didn’t accounted the score for the student future, the teachers, on the other hand, hold a lot of interest in their students performance.

A few weeks before the test, generally from the beginning of the school year till the test, they would review a lot of the content they would expect to find on those test, with their students. This was a way to prepare for the test but also to refresh students memory after long summer vacation. Preparing students for the test, was somewhat associate by teacher as a gage of their success.

While the Colombian school was preparing students for the IB exam in similar ways than the Zimbabwean school, the pressure was more oriented to the Colombian National High School Exam. The test would account for students university acceptance and therefore both students and parents had very high expectations regarding their performance. Teacher would equally prepare students for both exams but for most students the Colombian exam hold higher importance. On Saturday morning students would come back to school to prepare for the test with their teacher and teacher would then teach for the test, as a result students in the school scored very well at those exams and the school had among the highest score in the country.

Conclusion: If both school hold similar practices regarding those international examination, the attention taken to the test seems to be directly linked to the outcomes they involve. Based on those two school it seems obvious to me how those international high stakes test influence the way school and teacher adapt their teaching practices and re-evaluate them to adjust them to students need. It is on the other hand difficult to see any repercussions on students and the quality of the education they receive.