President George Bush proposed to increase standardized testing with a program called No Child Left Behind. But many are worried about excess stress being forced onto children by increasing the amount of testing time. An organization against the proposed increase in standardized testing is the children s advocacy group Alliance For Childhood . The group says that health care professionals and parents already report that test-related stress is literally making many children sick. The Alliance says that the pressure and anxiety associated with high stakes testing is especially unhealthy for young children and may undermine the development of positive social relationships and attitudes toward school and learning.
Test scores have meaning only in the context of the whole child.
Evidence is growing of harm to children s health. More high-stakes testing means more dropouts, fewer good teachers. Parents have the right to know whether their children are truly learning. The only way for parents to know for certain whether their children are learning is to measure regularly. The American people strongly support the President s plan to test students.