First Advisor

Bill Griesar

Date of Award

Spring 6-15-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Psychology and University Honors

Department

Psychology

Language

English

Subjects

Academic Stress, Standardized Testing, Memory Recall, Working Memory, Accountability in Education

DOI

10.15760/honors.1666

Abstract

The integration of High-Stakes standardized testing into U.S. public education to serve as an accountability system has been a disputed issue since the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandated these assessments nationwide in 2002. NCLB aimed to locate and identify schools failing to reach Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and trigger a chain of interventions based on student performance, as an effort to track measurable outcomes from federal education funding. While supporters view these standardized tests as quantifiable data for school effectiveness in academics, critics challenge the claim of validity.

This review integrates current psychological research in the area of stress, to examine the neurological impacts of High Stakes testing-induced stress on cognitive functions, such as working memory and memory recall. Ultimately, this explores how this might affect scores and data coming from these assessments given to K-12 students. While moderate stress can enhance performance and memory consolidation, excessive academic stress is shown to negatively impact learning and core executive functions. By combining educational policy review with neurobiological insight, this paper adds perspective to debate on current assessment methods and advocates for reform to prioritize holistic development.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/43747

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