But instead of receiving anticipated information about the boy's unstable family life or other problems, peers talked about the pressure to perform. Last year the U.S. Department of Education surveyed 1,015 teenagers to list their top pressures. Similar statistics have been replicated in other surveys. Schools compete for funding and, in many places, for students. At least part of that funding often depends on scores students achieve on standardized tests.
Teachers feel pressure to teach to achieve test results.
Pressure on parents. Almost all parents want their children to have a better life than they have had, and part of that ambition includes equipping their children to have a good education so they can get scholarships, get into a good college and then get a good job. Pressure on the students. Most kids today have more materially than any previous generation, and most of them want to maintain that lifestyle. They know that to live the way they want to live, to get a good job, they need a good education.