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Recent federal and state mandates regarding education in our nation's public schools are likely detrimental to student learning. There are several factors that contribute to the negative effect of intensive standardized testing on true student learning and achievement. Over testing our children is affecting academic, social emotional and physical well-being.

The No Child Left Behind Act has caused states to surpass a reasonable level of accountability. Teachers in many states, including Florida are tailoring their lesson plans to the expected questions on their respective state mandated standardized tests. Students are learning many valuable skills and a great deal of important information during test preparation.
Unfortunately, subject matter that is not on state tests are being skimmed over, or deleted from the curriculum altogether. Many states only test in the subject areas of reading, writing and mathematics. In those states science and social studies are no longer high on the list of priorities. Other states have recently added social studies and/or science portions to their standardized tests. Students who attend school in states with rigorous standardized test are very often deprived of specials or fine arts activities such as music, art and dance. Schools have been cutting many programs considered non-essential over the last decade to spend more time on the basics and due to budget concerns.
Another great concern related to high stakes standardized testing is the stress that is being put on students from the elementary level all the way up to high school. Fourth graders afraid of being retained are not sleeping for several nights before the test. Sophomores are vomiting in the school restrooms the morning of their test. In some cases it has been reported that parents are also being displaying increased levels of stress due to their child's testing.
The vast majority of teachers and administrators disagree with "teaching to the test". However, they face the very real possibility of losing their job if their school does not meet adequate yearly progress. Therefore, they do what they feel is necessary to protect their livelihood.
Adequate yearly progress often referred to in the profession as AYP is determined by a school improving in several sub-categories including students with disabilities and student on free and reduced lunch. This often sounds logical it theory to many outsiders and event to many professional educators. Problems arise when you take a closer look at the details. For instance, the middle school down the street is a cluster site for students with autism. Although the majority of these students take an alternate assessment, they are still factored into the school's score. The fact that the school where seventy percent of the students parent are on welfare needs to make the same amount of progress as a school in the affluent neighborhood in the suburbs is another concern.

Learn more about this author, Gwendolyn Carey.
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