High Stakes TestingAlbert Einstein once stated, "not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." High-stakes tests attempt to determine the knowledge a person has acquired during grades K-12. These standardized tests are used to judge a person's ability to graduate from high school and also to judge whether a child has sufficient knowledge to proceed to the next grade level. In this article I will discuss how these tests do not accurately portray someone's intelligence, how they have increased dropout rates, and how they also show the harmful psychological effects they have had. High-stakes tests do not accurately determine a student's intelligence. In 1999, the National Academy of Sciences conducted research into appropriate and inappropriate uses of tests. They agreed that “no single test score can be considered a definitive measure of a student's knowledge” (http://www.allianceforchildhood.net/news/histakes_test_position_statement.htm). Using these standardized tests to decide whether a person has earned his/her diploma is unreasonable and has proven ineffective. The Alliance for Childhood states that “the use of standardized tests as the sole measure of whether students are promoted, whether they are placed in low-level classes, or whether they will graduate from high school is condemned as unsupportable by every professional testing organization ”. ). In Arizona, Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) test will soon be used in this way; 2008 high school students must pass this test to graduate. A study prepared by the Arizona Standards organization states that “the Arizona AIMS test, if implemented today, would fail between 50% and 75% of all high......medium paper standards...... ( GOALS). Arizona Department of Education. Retrieved October 24, 2002, from the World Wide Web: http://www.ade.state.az.us/standards/aims/PerformanceStandards/performancelevels.asp2. Test and failure. Retrieved October 24, 2002, from the World Wide Web: http://www.fairtest.org/arn/retenfct.htm3. Position statement on High Stakes testing. Alliance for Children. Retrieved October 24, 2002, from the World Wide Web: http://www.allianceforchildhood.net/news/histakes_test_position_statement.htm4. Haney, Walt. The myth of the Texas miracle in education. Retrieved October 24, 2002, from the World Wide Web: http://www.epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v8n41/5. What's wrong with high-stakes testing in general and targets in particular? Retrieved October 24, 2002, from the World Wide Web: http://www.azstandards.org/protestmaterials.htm