Effects of State Testing on High Schoolers

Many students, even teachers, are upsetted by the effect and inconvenience that state testing has on high schoolers. Not only is it unnecessary academically in the fact that it does not change a students schedule or effect the level of their classes in the incoming year. It also takes students away from their present classes for up to a week, causing many people to fall behind in classes, adding much stress to an already stressful time. Another thing is the placement of the SBA testing. SBA tests are scheduled for the month of May, which is such poor timing considering the majority of classes are taking finals and finishing up their classes during this month. This is also mainly the last month available for retakes, forcing students to often take them after school or potentially missing their chances to get their grade up.

Students are also affected by the stress that comes with SBA tests. Often, people freak out or even have panic attacks due to too much added stress or even just a test in general. SBA testing has only negative effects on people mentally and academically. Already, students associate testing as a stressful activity, placed in a negative light.  A few affects of testing  may be that, “Some young students experience ‘anxiety, panic, irritability, frustration, boredom, crying, headaches, and loss of sleep’ while taking high-stakes tests, they reported, before concluding that ‘high-stakes testing causes damage to children’s self-esteem, overall morale, and love of learning.'” Children that get lower scores on state tests can lose confidence, having it affect their scores in the future and love  for learning and education.

Finally, many people, especially younger, take their tests to heart and it begins to diminish confidence, happiness levels going down while stress levels shoot up. A source states, “Standardized tests fail to account for students who learn and demonstrate academic proficiency in different ways. For example, a student who struggles to answer a multiple-choice question about grammar or punctuation may be an excellent writer.” If testing doesn’t truly reveal anything about you, or any important information to help you in life, why is it necessary to take these tests each year, up until senior year of high school? The reality is, standardized and state testing has no positive outcomes. We need to think about how this will effect our schools in the future, what it will do to our schools. Because when cons outweigh the pros, shouldn’t you find a way to change that?