Testing, Stress, and Performance: How Students Respond Physiologically to High-Stakes Testing
Year: 2018
Type: report
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: 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.
DOI: 10.3386/w25305
Language: English
Subfield: Behavioral Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3021041788