Standardized testing is one of the most harmful things for students. Standardized testing is the poster child for rapid, memorization-based learning and quick recall on things that aren’t going to be relevant to most of us in 10 years anyway.
According to the National Education Association, studies have shown that when young brains are put in high stress environments like
standardized testing, cortisol levels in the brain drop.
This turns into students “shutting down” due to pressure, rather than being able to manage their stress effectively.
This type of testing is mentally draining and anxiety inducing. Teachers—often through no fault of their own—are essentially preaching single-line recall and punishing kids who do not fit into their tiny little boxes before telling the kids that they failed.
According to Grace Tatter at Harvard University, teachers and administrators stress standardized testing due to the high stakes and pressure it places on both students and educators. Tatter explained that administrators expect students will perform well on these tests, which can lead to anxiety and stress which overall affects their academic performance.
The American Federation of Teachers , ( A F T ) supports standardized tests fully, and they oppose the elimination of it, and the wholesale disclosure of test questions and answers.
The AFT also explains that these practices can undermine the quality and usefulness of the tests. But what about kids like me, kids who moved schools enough where the standards are shifting like sand through your fingers. You move once and all of a sudden; you’re six months behind in your new curriculum, but what happens
when you move again? In my situation , multiple states now are six months ahead of everyone else because the standards in Georgia are completely different from the standards in Indiana. What happens then?
By continuing to implement these harmful tests you are taking away students’ creativity and problem-solving skills, and then further pushing kids into mental health issues like burn out, anxiety, stress, and majorly harming any type of motivation kids have. As an adult who was crying out for help due to the heavy weight and stress of the system, I’m seeing first-hand the damage it causes because of what it did to myself and so many others.
What does it even look like from an adult perspective watching literal children end up in tears over not being good enough to squeeze themselves into the exhaustingly small boxes in which they were not going to fit into anyway. What then? What will school board officials do when they see us completely shattered at the effects of standardized testing? Because from what I’m seeing now, it’s coming.