Is too much testing bad for student performance and well-being?

Is too much testing bad for student performance and well-being?


Standardised and teacher-developed tests play an important role in monitoring student performance and academic progress. When students perceive that
their teachers treat them fairly, and that their parents and teachers help them build their self-con dence and set realistic goals, they are less likely to feel anxious when confronted with a test.


http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/download/2109a667-en.pdf?expires=1514199663&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=512E71989A7CB924DC6C4DBA39FA594B

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Standardised tests help measure student’s progress at school and can inform education policy about existing shortfalls. However, too much testing could lead to much pressure on students and teachers to learn and teach for a test, something that would take the joy out of the learning process.

Many parents and educators are all too familiar with this quandary: they recognise that good measurement can drive improvement, but often argue that too much testing can make students anxious without improving their learning. In particular, standardised tests that determine the academic and life pathways of students may trigger anxiety, and if conducted too frequently might lead to poorer performance, absenteeism and lower self-confidence. But are standardised tests really used all that frequently? And what do PISA data show about the relationship between performance, anxiety and the frequency of testing?

http://oecdeducationtoday.blogspot.com.es/2017/12/busting-myth-about-standardised-testing.html

When Does Accountability Work?

David J. Deming sits down with EdNext’s Marty West to discuss his new study on the effects of a test-based accountability system in Texas on the Education Next Podcast.

When Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), standardized testing in public schools became the law of the land. The ambitious legislation identified test-based accountability as the key to improving schools and, by extension, the long-term prospects of American schoolchildren. Thirteen years later, the debate over the federal mandate still simmers. According to the 2015 EdNext poll, about two-thirds of K–12 parents support annual testing requirements, yet a vocal minority want the ability to have their children “opt out” of such tests (see “The 2015 EdNext Poll on School Reform,” features, Winter 2016). Teachers themselves are divided on the issue of high-stakes testing.