Test Stress
True or False: Research shows test stress can lower performance even when students understand the material.
What is True?
Teaching to the test can cause subjects like art, music, and social studies to be ____.
What is cut or reduced?
This federal law from 2001 increased testing pressure on schools and teachers.
What is No Child Left Behind (NCLB)?
True or False: Standardized test are equitable and fair because all students are given the same test.
What is false?
Standardized tests may reinforce inequalities. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds (e.g. fewer resources, less test preparation) may systematically underperform, reinforcing existing gaps.
High-stakes tests can trigger this type of stress response in students’ brains.
What is the fight-or-flight response?
True or False: The majority of educators (74%) find in-class assessments to be more useful that standardized test?
What is true?
Standardized test results can help identify which students need this.
What is additional support or intervention?
Standardized, high-stakes tests often fail to capture "______” (like resilience, grit, persistence, study habits) that are important in academic success.
What are soft skills?
Students often lose sleep and experience ______ or ______ due to this kind of exam pressure.
What is headaches or nausea?
Many teachers say high-stakes testing shifts learning from mastery to this.
What is memorization?
Standardized tests are meant to hold schools accountable and measure this.
What is student achievement?
Educators struggle monitoring this when their instruction involves standardized test and instead find diagnostic or formative assessments to be a more helpful tool.
What is growth?