Poorly designed or misused assessment practices can harm students through increased anxiety, lost learning time, and deficit-based messages¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · qualitativer1·q2
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i? Poor assessment practices can harm students through increased anxiety, lost learning time from over-testing, and damaging deficit-based messages, with particular impact on vulnerable students including those with disabilities. → Arnold 2025
Evidence¶
Arnold 2025¶
Arnold, J., Hayes, S., & Zagata, E. (2025). Leading inclusive, coherent, and effective assessment systems: Closing opportunity and outcome gaps for students with disabilities. WestEd. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED673562
q2 · i? · qualitative · r1
The brief states, citing Heissel et al. (2021) and Zeidner (1998), that "poor assessment practices can also cause harm to students through increased anxiety, lost learning time due to over-testing, and damaging and deficit-based messages." It adds these consequences are particularly true for vulnerable students such as those with disabilities.
"poor assessment practices can also cause harm to students through increased anxiety, lost learning time due to over-testing, and damaging and deficit-based messages about their learning and identities (Heissel et al., 2021; Zeidner, 1998)"
Discussion¶
Learner Variables¶
- Affect Regulation — outcome: instruction changes it
- Academic Anxiety — outcome: instruction changes it
Related Claims¶
- Students taking online and proctored online exams report higher test anxiety than students taking on-campus exams and non-proctored online exams — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
- Guiding analytics for learners can improve mathematics achievement, retention, learning strategies, and reduce math anxiety — related
- Anticipatory test anxiety can set off a downward spiral of maladaptive cognitions, emotions, and behaviors — related
- Self-handicapping decreases effort to protect self-worth, in contrast to defensive pessimism — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
poor-assessment-practices-harm-students-anxiety-lost-time |
title |
Poorly designed or misused assessment practices can harm students through increased anxiety, lost learning time, and deficit-based messages |
description |
Poorly designed or misused assessment practices can harm students through increased anxiety, lost learning time, and deficit-based messages |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
weak |
newest_evidence |
2025 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-10 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — arnold-2025 |
Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.