Increasing stakes in testing: the impact on test anxiety in middle school students

Abstract

Over the past 40 plus years, research on the construct of test anxiety has resulted in multiple theoretical models and much sociological and psychological data. The study being presented examined whether different types of assessments elicited different levels of anxiety in students. Two types of assessments, a high stakes test and a curriculum based exam, were compared to a baseline measure of state anxiety to determine the impact of exam stakes on anxiety. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory was administered to a group of middle school students in a Midwestern school during the spring trimester. Results indicated that students experience a wide range of state anxiety related to the school experience, but do not show an increase in mean anxiety scores according to the stakes of the exam when compared to the baseline state anxiety measure.