A quote from the source linked to this claim from the National Education Association (NEA) says, “Most of us know that standardized tests are inaccurate, inequitable, and often ineffective at gauging what students actually know.” (NEA) This line is important because it directly challenges the assumption that standardized tests are objective, fair, or comprehensive. If they are “inaccurate” and “inequitable,” then they can harm student success by failing to measure true learning, penalizing students who don’t perform well in that format, and misrepresenting their abilities based off of a single assessment. That alone makes a strong case that the dependence on these tests can be dangerous to a student’s academic journey. Another source titled “The Psychological Toll of High-Stakes Testing” explains how high-stakes standardized tests generate intense anxiety in students, and that this anxiety “often creates enormous anxiety and return muddy data.” (Edutopia) When students are under such pressure, their performance may reflect test stress more than their actual learning. That means their success or failure on a standardized test may be more about how they handle the format and stakes than how much they truly know. This again is dangerous to their overall student success because one test can overshadow everything else.
Another source states, “High-stakes tests are unfair to many students … grade retention has repeatedly been proven to be counterproductive: students who are retained do not improve academically, are emotionally hurt by retention, suffer a loss of interest in school and self-esteem, and are more likely to drop out of school.” (IDRA) This quote directly supports the claim that standardized tests, especially when they’re used to make big decisions like grade retention or high school graduation, can be dangerous to student success. When a student’s future hinges on one test, the stresses, fear of failure, and negative emotional impact can do real damage, not just academically but personally. In turn, that emotional damage limits their ability to learn, engage, and stay in school.
