How will different stakeholders be affected?

Tests can be high stakes or low stakes depending on how the test will affect the test-taker or other stakeholders. There are times when one test can be high stakes for one person but low stakes for another. For example, a practice teaching certification test taken by a freshman Bilingual Education major as a class assignment may be low stakes. But for a graduating senior trying to get state licensure, this would be a high-stakes test.

For high-stakes testing, it is particularly important to carefully consider the validity and reliability of a test to ensure that decisions being made are appropriate and adequately supported by evidence from the test.