Test Anxiety Levels

In recent years, with the passage of legislations such as the No Child Left Behind Act, standardized testing has become an integral part of student learning from elementary school to high school levels. Due to the increase in testing, it is vital for educators, especially classroom teachers who are responsible for preparing the students for these tests, to be aware of the impact of test anxiety of student performance (Supon, 2004).

Over the last several decades, researchers have highlighted the adverse impact of test anxiety on student performance, regardless of the students' grade levels or previous academic achievement (Anastasi, 1976; Sarason, Davidson, Lighthall, Waite, & Ruebush, 1960; McDonald, 2001). For instance, Hembree's (1988) meta-analysis of 562 studies addressing the relationship between test anxiety and student performance have indicated that test anxiety is a key factor in undermining student performance.

In the case of some students, particularly elementary school students, test anxiety can lead to the students' completing their tests rapidly simply to "escape the unpleasant physical experiences" (Cheek, Bradley, Reynolds and Coy, 2002, p. 162). What is highly disturbing is that as testing becomes increasingly frequently and common in the lives of test-anxious students, their experiences of "fli

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ined to determine whether they affect the levels of test anxiety. Finally, the predictive importance of the variable of test anxiety for student achievement will also be evaluated (Beaulieu et al., 2001). Initial Research Questions Based on the above discussion, the following research questions have been formulated: To what extent do junior high school students in urban and suburban areas suffer from test anxiety? To what extent do students who attend a school in a high-income school district (suburban area) have higher levels of academic performance than their counterparts who attend a school in a low-income school district (urban area)? To what extent do students with higher-than-average levels of test anxiety have lower levels of academic performance than their counterparts with lower levels of test anxiety, as measured on standardized tests? To what extent do students with measurable study skills and habits have lower levels of academic performance than their counterparts who lack measurable study skills and habits? Definition of Terms Dependent variable: The dependent variable refers to the "response measure of an experiment." It is the targeted behavior or factor that is measured to assess the effect of the indep
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Approximate Word count = 3351
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)

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