One of many jobs we have as educators have is assessing our students throughout our time with them, and it is something many teachers neglect. In my experience especially in high school teachers were just running through their class like it was a checklist. They were teaching what they had to, and testing when they had to. However, I don’t think that is how you should do it. Teaching the topics you are provided with is a big part of the job, and with that comes testing. Testing to me in high school always felt like something they had to do. It wasn’t used for learning. However, I did have one teacher my senior year who used testing to help students. It was his first and only year teaching. He was doing it to help become a principal, and even though he was only teaching for a year he really tried. He taught a civics class, and he did his best to make the class fun and helpful. Tests were one thing he would use. I found out later on when I was talking to him before I graduated, that one thing he used test scores for was to help place students around the classroom. He would try and place students who needed extra help with students he knew could help them. Throughout the semester I always wondered why he always put one kid in my group, and it was because I was one of the few people who he would listen to and work with. That is one reason I think testing can be an immensely helpful tool if teachers actually use it. Tests when used to their full potential can really elevate the classroom. They can be used to see what individual students need, and could give insight on how to help them be better learners. Different types of assessments can be used to gather different types of date to work with too. Whether you use summative or formative, both could be used to elevate and evaluate your students’ learning. Assessments should be used for learning, and should be used to help students. Instead they are often viewed as harmful roadblocks by students they have to do to get through.