Survey: Parents Say State Testing is Hurting Young Kids

A recent survey distributed by New York principals asked 8,000 parents across the state how their kids in grades 3-8 felt about the English Language Arts and Mathematics state assessments and the response was overwhelming: it's hurting them in more ways than one.

The state recently passed legislation — the Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) — that uses state test scores to evaluate not only students, but teachers as well. Parents said the stress of prepping for these exams for a large chunk of the school year compounded with the results impacting their teachers is overwhelming for young kids. During the exams, kids undergo six days of testing.

According to the survey, 75 percent reported their child was more anxious in the month before the test; nearly 80 percent said that test prep prevented their child from engaging in meaningful school activities, and 70 percent reported that the increased emphasis on high stakes testing has had a negative impact on their child’s school.

In addition to taking the survey, more than 4,000 parents left comments on how testing has affected their kids, and many of them said the test as well as the prep leading up to it has caused a variety of problems like:

• Physical symptoms caused by test anxiety, including tics, asthma attacks, acid reflux, vomiting.
• Sleep disruption, crying
• Refusal to go to school
• Feelings of failure, increasing as the tests progresses
• Complaints of severe boredom and restlessness from students who finished early and were required to sit still for the full 90 minutes of each test.

One parent who commented in the survey said: "Last night's comment by my son, Max, who is in fifth grade. 'I feel too much pressure to do well on the ELA test. I have to do well to show that I know what I am supposed to know. I also have to do really well for my teachers. I really like and respect my reading and writing teachers. If all of their students don't do well, they'll get bad grades. I don't want to be responsible for making my teachers fail!'"

One educator who has spearheaded a campaign to re-evaluate APPR is South Side High School Principal Dr. Carol Burris. She said using state exam scores to evaluate teachers is an inaccurate method that needs change. She added that this year's exams had several errors, including questions that either had two correct answers or none at all.

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"It's ironic that all this testing happens and no ones asks what parents think of this?" Burris said. "Parents are starting to rebel to opt out of testing...There are kids who are suffering, and it came through in the responses and comments (in the survey)."