John Thompson: Are High Stakes Tests Here to Stay? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

John Thompson: Are High Stakes Tests Here to Stay? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

John Thompson: Are High Stakes Tests Here to Stay?

by Anthony Cody

Guest post by John Thompson.
"High-stakes academic testing isn't going away," argues Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman in their New York Times Magazine article "Why Some Kids Handle Pressure while Others Fall Apart?" They describe a 5th grader's ordeal with standardized testing, "He got headaches and stomachaches. He would ask not to go to school." His pre-test anxiety "lasted a solid month before the test" and "'even after the test, he couldn't let it go.'"
Their answer is "more competition. It just needs to be the right kind." Of course, such a response would obviously be condemned as cruel unless "high-stakes academic testing isn't going away," so we have to get used to it.

Bronson and Merryman admit that "even third graders feel as if they are on trial. Students get the message that class work isn't what counts, and that the standardized exam is the truer measure. Sure, you did your