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This study explored differences in test anxiety on high-stakes standardized achievement testing and low-stakes testing among elementary school children. This is the first study to directly examine differences in young students' reported test anxiety between No Child Left Behind (NCLB) achievement testing and classroom testing. Three hundred thirty-five students in Grades 3 through 5 participated in the study. Students completed assessments of test anxiety following NCLB testing and typical classroom testing. Students reported significantly more overall test anxiety in relation to high-stakes testing versus classroom testing on two measures of test anxiety, effect sizes r = −.21 and r = −.10. Students also reported significantly more cognitive (r = −.20) and physiological (r = −.24) symptoms of test anxiety in relation to high-stakes testing. This study adds to the test anxiety literature by demonstrating that students experience heightened anxiety in response to NCLB testing. C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.A half-century ago, Seymour Sarason wrote that "we live in a test-conscious, test-giving culture in which the lives of people are in part determined by their test performance" (1959, p. 26). Since that time, the educational accountability movement in the United States has greatly increased the importance that testing has on the educational and occupational outcomes of children. Most recently, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB; U.S. Congress, 2002) dramatically increased the prevalence and stakes of standardized testing for public school children in elementary, middle, and high school by requiring annual testing of statewide academic achievement assessments in the areas of reading and mathematics during Grades 3 through 8 and once in high school. NCLB test scores are publicly reported and linked to rewards and sanctions, such as school funding, administration, and employment decisions, making this testing high-stakes in nature for educators and communities. However, little research has been conducted that examines how individual students perceive these annual high-stakes tests and whether or not students experience heightened anxiety/distress in relation to them.Test anxiety comprises psychological, physiological, and behavioral reactions that occur in association with concern about the negative outcomes resulting from failure or poor performance in evaluative situations (Zeidner, 1998). Lowe and colleagues (2008) have proposed a biopsychosocial model of test anxiety that highlights three different processes involved in the expression of test anxiety, including the individual's behavior, cognition, and physiology. Behaviors include both taskrelevant (e.g., focusing attention on task) and task-irrelevant behavior (e.g., skimming through items). Physiological reactions include emotional arousal (e.g., increased heart rate or muscle tightness).

High‐stakes tests have played an increasingly important role in how student achievement and school effectiveness are measured. Test anxiety has risen with the use of tests in educational decision making. Students with high test anxiety perform poorly on tests when compared to students with low test anxiety. School psychologists can play an important role as experts both in tests and measurement and mental health in providing consultation and treatment for students with test anxiety. This article describes the results of a systematic literature review of the last 10 years of test‐anxiety interventions. Results indicate that there are few studies that have examined test‐anxiety interventions with elementary and secondary school students. However, techniques including biofeedback, behavior therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, priming competency, and mixed approaches have demonstrated promising results. Suggestions are made for school psychologists for the delivery of evidenced‐based test anxiety interventions.

Despite evidence that preschool and early elementary school-age children can present with anxiety disorders that may put them at risk for later psychopathology and dysfunction, the cognitive-behavioral protocols available for treating anxiety in children have been tested almost exclusively in older children. However, there could be benefits to treating children earlier, before anxiety disorders begin to impair their social and academic development. This report discusses the adaptations necessary in providing cognitive-behavioral therapy to young anxious children and describes a manualized, cognitive-behavioral intervention, with child and parent components, that was piloted openly in nine families with children aged 4 to 7 years - each of whom had multiple risk factors for developing anxiety disorders, and most of whom had already presented with anxiety disorders. Eight of the nine children were judged "much" or "very much improved" at postintervention on number of anxiety diagnoses, number of DSM-IV anxiety symptoms, and ability to cope with feared situations. Cases are presented to illustrate the way that cognitive-behavioral therapy can be conducted with youngsters in this age range. Whereas randomized, controlled trials are needed to confirm the efficacy of this manualized treatment, our experience suggests that cognitive-behavioral protocols for anxiety can be adapted and successfully implemented with young children.