The intense focus on standardized tests has created a culture of anxiety in many inner-city schools. This article presents the findings of a case study of a test anxiety program that helped inner-city students and staffs deal more productively with anxiety through play, performance, and team building. According to the findings, the program created an environment where children and teachers talked about, addressed, and even played with their fears around testing. The program did this by destigmatizing anxiety, using improvisation to transform children’s relationship to fear, and by creating new tools for dealing with anxiety and test-taking.
AbramsL. M. (2004). Teachers’ views on high-stakes testing: Implications for the classroom. Temple, AZ: Education Policy Studies Laboratory.
2.
AlbrightA.Howard-PitneyB.RobertsS.ZicarelliJ. (1998). Tell your story: Guidelines for preparing an evaluation report. Sacramento: California Department of Health Services.
3.
Arts Education Partnership. (1999). Champions of change: The impact of the arts on Learning. Washington, DC: Author.
4.
AuW. (2009). Unequal by design: High stakes testing and the standardization of inequality. New York, NY: Routledge.
5.
BeidelD.TurnerS.Taylor-FerreiraJ. (1999). Teaching study skills and test-taking strategies to elementary school students. Behavior Modification, 23, 630-646.
6.
BergerK. (2009). The developing person through childhood and adolescence. New York, NY: Worth.
7.
BerkL.WinslerA. (1995). Scaffolding children’s learning: Vygotsky and early childhood learning (pp. 25-34). Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
8.
BradleyR.McCratyR.AtkinsonM.ArguellesL.ReesR.TomasinoD. (2007). Reducing test anxiety and improving test performance in America’s schools: Summary of results from the TestEdge national demonstration study. Boulder Creek, CO: Institute of HeartMath.
9.
BodrovaE.LeongD. J. (1996). Tools the mind: The Vvgotskian approach to early childhood education. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.
10.
BrownD.GallasiJ.AkosP. (2004). School counselor’s perceptions of the impact of high stakes testing. Professional School Counseling, 8(1), 31-39.
11.
Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development. (1992). A matter of time: Risk and opportunity in the nonschool hours (Carnegie Council Monograph). Retrieved from http://www.carnegie.org/ccadpubs.html
12.
CarterR.WilliamsS.SilvermanW. (2008). Cognitive and emotional facets of test anxiety in African American school children. Cognition and Emotion, 23, 539-551.
13.
CheekJ. R.BradleyL. J.ReynoldsJ.CoyD. (2002). An intervention for helping elementary students reduce test anxiety. Professional School Counseling, 31, 162-169.
14.
CizekG.BurgS. (2006). Addressing test anxiety in a high stakes environment. New York, NY: Corwin Press.
15.
ColeM. (1985). The zone of proximal development: Where culture and cognition create each other. In WertschJ., (Ed.), Culture, communication, and cognition: Vygotskian perspectives (pp. 146-162). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
16.
CroccoM.CostiganA. (2007). The narrowing of curriculum and pedagogy in an age of accountability: Urban educators speak out. Urban Education, 42, 512-536.
17.
DanielsH.ColeM.WertschJ. (Eds.). (2007). The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
18.
DuchesneS.VitaroF.LaroseS.TremblayE. (2008). Trajectories of anxiety during elementary-school years and the prediction of high school non-completion. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 37, 1134-1146.
19.
ErgeneT. (2003). Effective interventions on test anxiety reduction: A meta-analysis. School Psychology International, 24, 313-328.
20.
FarmerE. (2008). From passive objects to active subjects: Young people, performance and possibility. Journal of the Community Development Society, 39(2), 60-74.
21.
FeldmanN.SilvermanB. (2003). The let’s talk about it model: Engaging young people as partners in creating their own mental health program. In RobinsonK. E. (Ed.), Advances in school-based mental health, best practices and program models (pp. 12:1-12:24). Kingston, NJ: Civic Research.
22.
GieddJ.BlumenthalJ.JeffriesN.CastellanosF.LiuH.ZijdenbosA.RapoportJ. (1999). Brain development during childhood and adolescence: A longitudinal MRI study. Nature Neuroscience, 2, 861-863.
23.
GoldsteinL. (1999). The relational zone: The role of caring relationships in the co-construction of mind. American Educational Research Journal, 36, 647-673.
24.
GoodC.AronsonJ.InzlichtM. (2003). Improving adolescents standardized test performance: An intervention to reduce the risks of stereotype threat. Applied Developmental Psychology, 24, 645-662.
25.
GrovesP. (2002). “Doesn’t it feel morbid here?” High-stakes testing and the widening of the equity gap. Educational Foundations, 16(2), 15-31.
26.
HancockD. (2001). Effects of test anxiety and evaluative threat on students’ achievement and motivation. Journal of Educational Research, 94, 284-290.
27.
HeathS. (2000). Making learning work. Afterschool Matters, 1(1), 33-45.
28.
HeathS. B.SoepE.RoachA. (1998). Living the arts through language and learning: A report on community-based youth organizations. Americans for the Arts Monographs, 2(7), 1-20.
29.
HersezerhonD. (2006, January10). Toughening up for tests. The New York Times, pp. C1, C4.
30.
HeubertJ. P.HauserR. M. (Eds.). (1999). High-stakes: Testing for tracking, promotion, and graduation. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
31.
HodgeG.McCormickJ.ElliotR. (1997). Examination-induced distress in a public examination at the completion of secondary schooling. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 67, 185-197.
32.
HolzmanL. (1997). Schools for growth: Radical alternatives to current educational models. London, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum.
33.
HolzmanL. (2000). Performative psychology: An untapped resource for educators. Educational and Child Psychology, 17(3), 86-103.
34.
HolzmanL. (2006). Lev Vygotsky and the new performative psychology: Some implications for business and organizations. Advances in Organization Studies, 16, 254-268.
35.
HolzmanL. (2009). Vygotsky at work and play. London, UK: Routledge.
36.
HolzmanL. (2010). Without creating ZPDs there is no creativity. In ConneryC.John-SteinerV.Marjanovic-ShaneA. (Eds.), Vygotsky and creativity: A cultural-historical approach to play, meaning making, and the arts (pp. 27-40). Mahwah, NJ: Peter Lang.
37.
HolzmanL.NewmanF. (2012). Activity and performance (and their discourses)in social therapeutic method. In StrongT.LockA. (Eds.), Discursive perspectives in therapeutic practice (pp. 184-195). London, UK: Oxford University Press.
38.
JonesB. (2007). The unintended outcomes of high-stakes testing. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 23(2), 65-86.
39.
JonesM.JonesB.HargroveT. (2003). The unintended outcomes of high stakes testing. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
40.
KrugerL.WandleC.StruzzieroJ. (2007). Coping with the stress of high stakes testing. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 23(2), 109-128.
41.
LobmanC. (2009). A quasi-experimental study of the effectiveness of an improvisational team-building approach to addressing test anxiety and improving test scores in inner-city elementary schools. Chicago, IL: Spencer Foundation.
42.
LobmanC. (2010). Creating of developmental moments: Teaching and learning as creative activities. In ConneryC.John-SteinerV.Marjanovic-ShaneA. (Eds.), Vygotsky and creativity: A cultural-historical approach to play, meaning making, and the arts (pp. 199-214). New York, NY: Peter Lang.
43.
LobmanC. (2011). Improvising with(in) the system: Creating new teacher performances in inner city schools. In SawyerK. (Ed.), The teaching paradox: Creative improvisation in the classroom (pp. 73-93). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
44.
LobmanC.LundquistM. (2006). Unscripted learning: Using improv activities across the K-8 curriculum. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
45.
MacDonaldA. (2001). The prevalence and effects of test anxiety in school children. Educational Psychology, 21(1), 89-101.
46.
MadausG.RussellM.HigginsJ. (2009). The paradoxes of high stakes testing: How they affect students, their parents, teachers, principals, and society. Charlotte, NC: Information Age.
47.
MahnH.John-SteinerV. (2002). The gift of confidence: A Vygotskian view of emotions. In WellsG.ClaxtonG. (Eds.), Learning for life in the 21st century (pp. 46-58). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
48.
MahoneyJ.LarsonR.EcclesJ. (Eds.). (2005). Organized activities as contexts of development: Extracurricular activities, after school and community programs. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
49.
MassadS. (2003). Performance of doctoring: A philosophical and methodological approach to medical conversation. Advances in Mind-Body Medicine, 19(1): 6-13.
50.
MerriamS. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
51.
NelmesP. (2003, February28-March3). Developing a conceptual framework for the role of the emotions in the language of teaching and learning. Proceedings of CERME-3, Bellaria, Italy.
52.
NewmanF. (2009). Where is the magic in cognitive therapy? (A philo/psychological investigation). In HouseR.LowenthalL., (Eds.), Against and for CBT: Towards a constructive dialogue? (pp. 218-232). Ross-on-Wye, UK: PCCS Books.
53.
NewmanF.HolzmanL. (1993). Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary scientist. London, UK: Routledge.
54.
NewmanF.HolzmanL. (1996). Unscientific psychology: A cultural-performatory approach to understanding human life. Westport, CT: Praeger.
55.
NicholsS.BerlinerD. (2007). Collateral damage: How high stakes testing corrupts American schools. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
56.
O’NeillB. (2008). Storytelling and creative drama: A dynamic approach to inclusive early childhood education (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY.
57.
PattonM. Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
58.
RogoffB. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
59.
RosenbergM. (2005, January16). The warning signs for test anxiety. The New York Times, p. 14.
60.
RosiekJ. (2003). Emotional scaffolding: An exploration of the teacher knowledge at the intersection of student emotion and the subject matter. Journal of Teacher Education, 54, 399-412.
61.
SaboK. (2003). A Vygotskian perspective on youth participatory evaluation. Youth participatory evaluation: A field in the making [Special issue]. New Directions for Evaluation, 98, 13-24.
62.
SawyerK. (1997). Pretend play as improvisation: Conversation in the preschool classroom. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
63.
SawyerK. (2003). Group creativity: Music, theater, collaboration. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
64.
SingerD.GolinkoffR. M.Hirsh-PasekK. (Eds.). (2006). Play = Learning: How play motivates and enhances children’s cognitive and social-emotional growth. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
65.
StakeR. (1995). The art of case study research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
66.
SteeleC.AronsonJ. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 797-811.
67.
StrumpfJ.FodorI. (1993). The treatment of test anxiety in elementary school-age children: Review and Recommendations. Child and Family Behavior Therapy, 15(4), 19-41.
68.
TingeyR. (2009). High-stakes testing under the No Child Left Behind Act: How has it impacted school culture? (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Brigham Young University, Salt Lake City, UT.
69.
ValliL.ChamblissM. (2007). Creating classroom cultures: One teacher, two lessons, and a high stakes test. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 38(1), 57-75.
70.
VygotskyL. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
71.
VygotskyL. (1986). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
72.
VygotskyL. S. (1999). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky, Vol. 6 (RieberR. W., Ed.). New York, NY: Kluwer Academic.
73.
WellsG. (1999). Dialogic inquiry: Towards a sociocultural practice and theory of education. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
74.
ZeidnerM. (1998). Test anxiety: The state of the art. New York, NY: Plenum Press.
