Summary of Important Findings from the TestEdge National Demonstration Study (TENDS)

This primary purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of the TestEdge program in reducing stress and anxiety and improving emotional well-being, quality of relationships, and academic performance in students. This involved determining the magnitude, correlates, and consequences of stress and test anxiety among public school students. A second programmatic purpose was to characterize the implementation of the program in relation to its receptivity, coordination, and administration in a wide variety of school systems with diverse cultural, administrative, and situational characteristics.

The study tested two major hypotheses. The first was that enhanced competence in emotional management through learning and practicing the TestEdge tools would result in significant improvements in emotional self-regulation and psychophysiological coherence. These changes would then produce a marked reduction in test anxiety, which, in turn, would generate corresponding improvements in academic and test performance. As a result of the improvement in student emotion regulation skills, a second hypothesis was that there would be associated improvements in stress management, emotional stability, and the quality of relationships; enhancements in the student’s well-being as a whole; and improvements in classroom climate, organization, and function.

To investigate these hypotheses, we conducted two studies, each with different research objectives and designs. The first, the primary study, focused on an in-depth investigation of students at the 10th grade level. It was designed as a randomized controlled field study, involving pre- and post-TestEdge program measures with a total of 980 students participating. Extensive quantitative and qualitative data were gathered using survey questionnaires, interviews, structured observations, and student drawings, along with student test scores from two California standardized tests—the California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE) and the California Standards Test (CST). In addition, an electrophysiological study was conducted on a randomly stratified sample of students from both schools. Utilizing measures of heart rate variability, this study investigated the degree to which students had learned the techniques taught in the TestEdge program by providing an objective measurement of their ability to shift into the psychophysiological coherence state prior to taking a stressful test.

The secondary study consisted of qualitative investigations of the TestEdge program implementations in schools in eight states (California, Delaware, Florida, Ohio, Maryland, Texas, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania).

Figure 1. Students with high test anxiety score on average 15 point lower on standardized tests – for many that’s the difference between passing and a failing grade.

The following are key findings of the Primary Research Study:

• A significant majority (61%) of high school students suffer from test anxiety and 26% are handicapped by test anxiety often or most of the time.
• Twice as many girls as boys experience high levels of test anxiety.
• There is a strong association between test anxiety and academic performance. The greater the level of test anxiety, the lower the test scores. On average, students with high levels of test anxiety scored 15 points lower on both Math and English than those with low test anxiety.
• There is an important relationship between students’ social and emotional well-being at school and optimism about their future and their academic performance. In general, students who had closer peer relationships felt happier and more secure, felt that school better prepared them for life, and had higher academic performance than those who did not.
• Test anxiety is a significant impediment to the accurate assessment of students’ true academic ability, the consequences of which can have a profound impact on their future opportunities and life choices.
• The TestEdge program was highly successful in significantly reducing test anxiety in the students who participated in the program. Of the students who suffered test anxiety, 75% had reduced anxiety by the end of the program.
• Reduced test anxiety is associated with increased positive emotions and feelings and usually is associated with a reduction in negative feelings, emotional discord, and difficulty in relationships.
• Students in more than three-quarters (76.2%) of the 21 classes in which the TestEdge program was implemented demonstrated a significant reduction in test anxiety. This reduction occurred across the full range of academic ability, from students in lowest performing to those in the highest performing classes.

Students participating in the TestEdge program demonstrated significant:

• Reductions in feelings of loneliness, sadness, anger, depression, and disappointment.
• Improvements in their emotional awareness, power to control their feelings, and measures of Emotional Discord (i.e., they were not as overwhelmed by their emotions and did not repress negative feelings).
• Improvements in their awareness of others’ feelings (Empathy), their ability to share their feelings with others, their feelings of being understood, and their ability to avoid arguments or fights.
• Increases in enjoyment of class, positive feelings towards classmates, and increased perception of teacher care.
• Correlation between TestEdge tool use and increased use of the tools across different life situations.

Figure 2. Students who took the TestEdge® program and used the emWave® Stress Relief System showed significant reductions in their levels of test anxiety. The girls had the largest decrease in test anxiety using the TestEdge program and their test scores (English Language Arts) significantly increased by approximately 15 points.

Test Performance

• Subgroups of students participating in the study showed significant increases in test scores, suggesting that the TestEdge program is effective in helping students, especially females, manage test anxiety and increase test performance.
• Although the study did not find a significant increase in test scores for all participants in the TestEdge program, four subgroups of students, ranging from 50 to 129 in size, did have significant increases in test performance (on average from 10 to 25 points) following their participation in the program.
• Three of the subgroups that achieved an increase in test performance were in English and the other in Math. Students in these subgroups tended to be female and enrolled in regular (as opposed to advanced) classes.
• Improvements in test performance typically are associated with reductions in test anxiety and improvements in emotional disposition and stress management.

Physiological Study Results

The physiological study was designed to provide an objective measure of the degree to which student ability to manage test stress had improved after they had taken the TestEdge program. Designed as a controlled laboratory experiment using electrophysiological measures, this study used a randomly stratified subgroup of students from both the experimental and the control schools. The results show that:

• High school students can learn to self-generate heart rhythm coherence prior to challenging situations such as taking an important test. This shift was associated with significant reductions in test anxiety and corresponding improvements in measures of emotional disposition.
• The Physiological measures support a causal link between increased psychophysiological coherence and cognitive functions critical in learning and test-taking.
• Students’ overall heart rate variability and heart rhythm coherence significantly increased and they had internalized coherence as their new familiar reference state. Coherence creates a more healthy, harmonious, and stable pattern of psychophysiological function directly associated with increased emotional stability, stress resiliency and cognitive performance. This is a particularly significant finding since it provides evidence that coherence is progressively established in the neural architecture as a new, stable psychophysiological baseline or set point.
• For a subgroup reductions in test anxiety and improved heart rhythm coherence are associated with improved test performance. These changes are also associated with reduced negative emotions, relational difficulties, and improved parental relationships.
• There is a critical connection between students’ emotional well-being and the quality of their relationships, behaviors, and academic performance.
• To provide educators with such information, it is necessary to deepen our understanding of student test anxiety and to implement effective tools to help students manage their emotional stress when taking important tests.

Student Drawings

Students in the two schools provided over 800 drawings reflecting how they feel when taking high stakes tests. These drawings provide a portfolio of students’ experience in the current high-stakes testing era. The drawing assessment looked for patterns and themes that emerged in the drawings as a whole and therefore provide a window into the heart and mind of each student. Two striking findings clearly emerged from the preliminary analysis of the drawings.

• The first, a surprising finding, is that there were very few depictions of adults in the drawings. Even more surprising is the fact that of the few adults shown in the drawings, none are depicted in a positive light.
• The second significant finding is that the vast majority of the drawings convey intense, mostly negative emotions. An overwhelming majority of students (69%) depict negative feelings about the testing experience.
• The primary negative emotional patterns depicted in these drawings included: feelings of isolation and marginalization, feelings of self-diminishment and insignificance, feelings of fear and extreme anxiety over taking tests (students drew themselves biting their nails, sweating profusely, shaking, crying, and pulling their hair out), and feelings of extreme negativity or emptiness, including violent, suicidal, and other destructive or self-destructive gestures and images.

Findings from the Qualitative Analysis

To supplement and provide a broader context for the quantitative data observational and interview protocols were utilized to obtain additional measures of the socio-emotional climate and interaction patterns in the classrooms and within the schools.

• In the comparative analysis of the pre/post TestEdge observations, more positive changes occurred at the experimental school while more negative changes occurred at the control school.
• Students at the experimental school had reduced levels of fear, frustration, and impulsivity. They also had increased engagement, emotional bonding, humor, persistence, and empathetic listening and understanding.
• In interviews with the teachers in the study, there was universal recognition that students come to school emotionally unprepared to learn.
• All teachers reported that they personally benefited from the Resilient Educator program, which was designed to help teachers manage stress and improve classroom dynamics.
• Almost all teachers placed a high value on the emWave^® PC/Mac Stress Relief System technology (a heart rhythm coherence feedback system designed to facilitate acquisition and internalization of the emotional shifting skills taught in the program), both for themselves and for their students.
• One of the most important factors in a successful implementation is the degree of support by the principal and key school administrators.

Secondary Study

The secondary study, consisted of case studies of schools in eight states (California, Florida, Delaware, Ohio, Maryland, Texas, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania). It evaluated the accessibility, receptivity, coordination, and administration of the Resilient Educator and TestEdge programs across elementary, middle, and high schools and in school systems with different sociocultural, administrative, and situational characteristics.

• On a scale of 0 to 10 with 10 being the highest, the mean score rating for the Resilient Educator program was 9.41, indicating the teachers found the program very relevant and valuable. All of the teachers at the secondary sites reported that they personally benefited from the Resilient Educator program and most felt they would benefit from additional training and follow-up sessions.
• Very few teachers felt their previous training had given them the skills to deal with stress, let alone help their students do so.
• The majority of the teachers felt the time necessary to provide emotional management education would be well worth the investment since it would: 1) save tremendous amounts of time currently devoted to managing disruptive emotions and behaviors, and 2) improve students’ ability to absorb and remember what they have learned.
• It was notable that almost all teachers at secondary sites commented on the value of the emWave PC/Mac technology, both for themselves and for their students, especially in helping students internalize the use of the tools in such a way that they looked forward to the experience.
• The support of the principal and other key school administrators cannot be overstated. It fact, it was likely the most important factor as to whether or not the school had a successful implementation.
• Teaching two TestEdge lessons per week produced better results than teaching a lesson daily or weekly. This seemed the optimal frequency to allow students time to integrate the lesson material until the techniques become familiar and automatic.
• Related to the process of internalization, almost all teachers placed a high value on the emWave PC/Mac Stress Relief System technology, both for themselves and for their students. This was also true at the primary sites where many of the students chose to use the technology on their own, both before and after school.