Source Cited: Clemmitt, Marcia. "Students Under Stress." CQ Researcher 13 July 2007: 577-600. Web. 6 Oct. 2015.
In her article, Students Under Stress, Marcia Clemmitt discusses how education has changed over time, through increased homework, the implementation of standardized testing, and legislation such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2002), and how these changes have effected both students and teachers. Clemmitt argues that many teachers are forced to teach to the test and their anxiety over test scores "often spills over onto students." One educator from Buffalo State College in New York, Wendy A. Patterson, says that "test pressure is increasing homework pressure in some schools... teachers get to the end of the day with material left, so they send it home... (This is) bad homework- work that children should be doing with the teacher present and can't be expected to complete on their own." Many schools, educators, and parents believe that there is too much homework being assigned to students, primarily younger children. Gerald LeTendre, a professor at Penn State, says "the only place that school homework levels have been increasing is the only place where it really doesn't make sense- elementary school." Research has shown that increasing homework and standardized testing in elementary schools often produces no change in how well students do, and it can actually have negative consequences, slowing them down as they progress in school, as young children are not always mentally capable of comprehending some of the things they are now being taught. Others disagree that students are under too much stress, saying that the amount of homework per night has not risen since the 1980s, and American students are actually falling behind compared to students in European and Asian countries, which continue to score higher than Americans on international tests. This fact has led some experts, such as Lynn Spampinato, Deputy Superintendent of Pittsburgh Public Schools, to ask for more strenuous homework and tests in schools. Spampinato says, "I'm not sure I believe we're pushing children to the edge. I'd say in many cases we're not challenging them enough." The article also makes the point that American students tend to have many more extracurricular activities, sports, and part-time jobs that can lead to increased stress when combined with hours of homework every night, while in Europe and Asia it is practically "unheard of" for a teenager to have a job while in school. This can make the question of increased homework/standardized testing even harder to answer because cultural differences play a large part in education. The two arguments I believe are most prevalent in this article are:
- Standardized testing and increased homework is ineffective, and causes unnecessary stress and anxiety among some students and teachers, while creating an apathetic attitude towards education in others.
- Standardized testing and increased homework is effective, and necessary for students to develop the higher-level thinking they will need throughout life. These tests and homework amounts are no more stressful than in previous generations.
One major point made in this article that made me question my previous assumptions about standardized testing was the article says that in a nationwide survey of U.S. teens, "a very high percentage of kids in our sample say they do as little as they can without getting into trouble." However, I then had to ask: what was the sample group? Depending on the group of students questioned, the results could be very different. If the sample mainly questioned students with average-to-subpar grades, with little interest in attending college, they may be more likely to put less effort into school than students with high grades who hope to earn a highly-coveted spot in admissions at one of the nation's top universities. As someone who was a high-achieving student all through primary and secondary education, I don't feel as though doing the minimal amount of work would have ever left me satisfied. I think a very large issue in education today, which Clemmitt mentions in her introduction, is that students no longer have a passion for learning, which is why they may put in minimal effort. Clemmitt says, "piles of homework dim children's love of learning-while depriving them of vital free time- without improving their school achievement... polls say that kids no longer read for pleasure after age 8, mainly because of too much homework." I agree that this is a major issue, as it encourages apathy in the learning environment. Students who find the material too challenging may become discouraged quickly and give up altogether, while others will find the material too simple and become bored, and view lessons as a meaningless waste of time. Clemmitt also includes a statement from one of the coauthors of The Case Against Homework, which says "if a child who didn't get the right idea in class slogs through 30 (homework) problems, she's just cementing the wrong method in her brain." I agree with this statement, and believe that more instruction needs to take place in the classroom rather than at home through assignments. I believe this article answers my research question for this journal, and the answer is yes: standardized testing encourages apathy and increases stress in students and teachers alike.
What really made me think this article would prove useful in my research is that much of what it was saying fit in well with my other sources and tied them together. Students Under Stress mentions that in a study containing 10 San Fransisco schools, there were more "schools reporting higher percentages of kids with stress and anxiety and kids cheating." The article also goes on to quote Laura Hamilton, a behavioral scientist, saying "When people perceive goals as impossible to attain, they'll tend to take shortcuts, such as 'teaching to the test'." I believe I can put this into conversation with Plagiarism and Cheating which spends a lot of the article discussing how high-stakes testing can lead to higher levels of cheating because students see their peers achieving more than them, and feel that in order to get ahead, it is necessary to lie, steal, and cheat. Both of these articles also discuss the implications and consequences of NCLB. Students Under Stress also discusses the types of homework assigned. Often assignments deal with skills that will be needed for the test, and that even though we can normally determine if a student has mastered a skill after five homework problems, teachers tend to assign much more than that. When teachers are "teaching to the test," Clemmitt argues, it is difficult for these skills to be applicable to other aspects of life. Teaching Critical Thinking also discusses how standardized testing and the way we teach critical thinking may not be entirely effective, because instead of encouraging creativity, it encourages students to look for the "one right answer." This causes school to become less about learning and more about test scores.
One question this source led me to is: Are we setting ourselves up for failure with standardized testing when the American college atmosphere is generally very different? In K-12 curriculum, it seems that everyone is concerned with how me measure up compared to other countries. Yet the way lessons are taught in K-12 classrooms is vastly different from how concepts are taught in the college classroom. Even if we can level the playing field between America and other countries on education, what good will it do us when our colleges are still vastly different? The fact that college is much cheaper or free to students in other countries while Americans continue to face growing student loan debt may be a factor, however this is just a theory: I would need to do more research on the differences between K-12 and collegiate curriculum, both in America and other countries, in order to determine how exactly they differ. I believe this article is helping me further cement my opinion, but it has been evolving. While I began looking at cursive writing and different aspects of the curriculum, I am now more concerned with standardized testing and legislation such as NCLB and CCSS (Common Core State Standards). I believe my next step in the research process is to study more how other countries educate young children and teenagers, the frequency/difficulty of homework assigned, and how it factors into the student's grade for the course. I then need to compare this to what I have already found about the American education system.
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