Stress Impacts Student Performance
Decades of research and studies have documented the impact of stress on cognitive performance such as critical thinking, judgment, and decision-making skills.
The ability to concentrate, follow directions, process new information, and make good decisions are all greatly diminished and impaired by stress.
The high level of stress induced by the high stakes consequences of standardized tests has in effect “poisoned the well” and directly undermines the reliability and validity of the Common Core assessments.
The new Computer Adaptive Tests (CAT) are supposedly superior to paper tests because they can measure a student’s ability and achievement level in a shorter amount of time using fewer questions.
This is possible because test questions are generated in real time based on how the student responded to the previous question and the difficulty of subsequent test items are adjusted to the student’s “perceived” ability level.
The impact of student stress will greatly diminish the reliability and validity of CAT because the test depends on each student performing at maximum cognitive ability and putting forth Stress Impacts Student Performance | WagTheDog: