Zombie Ideas in Education: High-Stakes Testing and Graduation Policies¹⁹

Heightened Test Anxiety Among Young Children: Elementary School Students’ Anxious Responses To High-Stakes Testing²⁰

“The results of high-stakes tests used as a high school diploma requirement ‘show quite clearly that Blacks and Latinos (and English Language Learners) are disproportionately failing them, whether enrolled in Texas, New York, California, or Minnesota” (Kern)

“In an educational accountability climate in which schools face difficult choices about
how to use limited resources to maximize student learning, understanding the effect of test anxiety on students’ test performance and psychological well-being is essential….test anxiety can have a negative impact on grade point average and children with high levels of test anxiety are more likely to drop out of school” (Segool et. al.)

Diane Kern discusses the key issues with high-stakes testing, drawing specific examples from the Rhode Island public school system. Kern argues that accountability reform must include teacher input, that unequal access to resources directly impacts student achievement on tests, and that “high-stakes testing policies often result in schools “gaming the system,” increasing the probability of students with poor achievement dropping out of high school.¹⁹ In Rhode Island, the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) ranks students, teachers, and schools in reading, writing, science and mathematics. High school students, as a component of the new Rhode Island Diploma System, must achieve “partially proficient” in reading and mathematics in order to graduate. About 4,000 junior students had not fulfilled those requirements at the time this article was published, causing many people to examine the graduation requirements and the NECAP more closely.

“The NECAP technical report specifically states that these tests are not designed for use as a high school graduation requirement” (Kern)

Segool, Carlson, Goforth, Embese, and Barterian examined levels of test anxiety associated with high-stakes testing in elementary school children, postulating about the influence such anxiety has on test performance. Segool et. al., defined test anxiety as the “psychological, physiological, and behavioral reactions that occur in association with concern about the negative outcomes resulting from failure or poor performance in evaluative situations.”²⁰ Segool et. al. found a statistical significance between level of anxiety dependent on condition, or type of test (i.e. either classroom test or high-stakes test). High-stakes testing directly impacts students as a result of new graduation and retention policies that require passing such tests in order to graduate or move up a grade level. These new policies only serve to increase test anxiety in children of all ages. Although this study only examined test anxiety in elementary school, it is probable that a similar, if not higher, level of anxiety exists among high-school students as a direct result of the high-stakes nature of the tests.

“Students in elementary school report significantly more overall test anxiety and more cognitive and physiological symptoms of test anxiety about high-stakes testing than classroom testing” (Segool et. al.)

High-stakes testing also serves to reproduce the inequity of the public school system by benefiting the students with many opportunities and monetary resources and harming the students with little to no school resources. Kern opposes the use of such high-stakes tests in making crucial decisions, such as who may graduate, due to the serious validity and fairness issues of these tests demonstrated above. Segool et. al. also raises questions about the validity of high-stakes testing, due to the increased levels of test anxiety that may negatively impact test performance.

“Reducing test anxiety prior to high-stakes testing may be an important method for maximizing student performance and minimizing student distress” (Segool et. al.)

Kern highlights the importance of grassroots organizing in combatting high-stakes testing, declaring that “this important change in policymaker’s perceptions and decision-making came about only after teachers, students, higher educators, and the public raised serious concerns and disconnects between policy and research-based best practice.”¹⁹  

Concluding with “three research-based recommendations for college and career ready assessment systems as well as a specific plan for getting accountability right,”¹⁹ Kern recommends a focus on a more rounded assessment of student achievement, rather than on just one test score. Segool et. al. agrees that a more rounded assessment would be beneficial for students, reducing the anxiety surrounding high-stakes testing. Both articles describe negative consequences of high-stakes testing, seriously questioning the validity of these tests. Both authors argue that, for the reasons mentioned above, we should question high-stakes assessments being used in graduation and retention policies.