Testing, Stress, and Performance: How Students Respond Physiologically to High-Stakes Testing /
A potential contributor to socioeconomic disparities in academic performance is the difference in the level of stress experienced by students outside of school. Chronic stress - due to neighborhood violence, poverty, or family instability - can affect how individuals' bodies respond to stressor...
Gespeichert in:
- Weitere Titel:
- Testing, Stress, and Performance
- 1. Verfasser:
- Körperschaft:
- Weitere Verfasser:
- , , ,
- Format:
- Elektronisch E-Book
- Sprache:
- Englisch
- Veröffentlicht:
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Cambridge, Mass.
National Bureau of Economic Research
2018.
- Zusammenfassung:
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A potential contributor to socioeconomic disparities in academic performance is the difference in the level of stress experienced by students outside of school. Chronic stress - due to neighborhood violence, poverty, or family instability - can affect how individuals' bodies respond to stressors in general, including the stress of standardized testing. This, in turn, can affect whether performance on standardized tests is a valid measure of students' actual ability. We collect data on students' stress responses using cortisol samples provided by low-income students in New Orleans. We measure how their cortisol patterns change during high-stakes testing weeks relative to baseline weeks. We find that high-stakes testing does affect cortisol responses, and those responses have consequences for test performance. Those who responded most strongly - with either a large increase or large decrease in cortisol - scored 0.40 standard deviations lower than expected on the on the high-stakes exam.
- Umfang:
- 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);
- Anmerkungen:
- November 2018.
- Schlagworte: