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Early testing of schoolchildren: “We found absolutely no effect”
A study on testing younger pupils shows that even 2–3 fairly challenging math tests in early school years made no difference – neither for how well students thrived in school later or for their performance on national math exams.
Regardless of gender, background, parents’ level of education, or whether the children were born early or late in the year: The study shows that early testing has no significance in either direction.
“We found absolutely no effect,” says Colin Peter Green, a professor at NTNU's Department of Economics.
He has investigated whether early testing affects the learning, well-being, and school environment of Norwegian children aged seven to nine.
Inspiration or harm?
Screening and tests at lower primary level are controversial in Norway.
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Supporters argue that they are useful tools for identifying pupils with additional learning needs early. Some also believe that testing can inspire pupils to focus more on their schoolwork and perform better.
Critics argue that testing can harm children’s mental health and that stress, pressure, and a narrow focus on results negatively affect their well-being and the school environment.
A unique opportunity to examine the effect of testing
Hardly any research has been done on the impact testing actually has on young children. The work done by the research team shows how the introduction of a series of fairly difficult maths tests affected Norwegian children aged seven to nine.
The study involves two cohorts of around 7,500 pupils born in 2008 and 2009 at 81 primary schools.
From 2016 to 2018, the pupils born in 2008 were tested twice. The 2009 cohort was given three tests.
These types of tests are not usually used in Norway. The fact that Norwegian primary schools do not give grades, homework, or formal assessments provided a golden opportunity to study the effects of introducing testing.
The PISA test shapes schools
Apart from the screening tests in Years 1 and 3, Norwegian pupils are not formally tested until they take the first national tests in reading, numeracy, and English in Year 5.
The system is now changing. For instance, the Year 1 screening test is being dropped.
Nevertheless, the number of tests has grown over the past 20 years, according to the education news site Utdanningsnytt (link in Norwegian).
This increase has been driven by national authorities, local authorities, and schools. The PISA test for 15-year-olds, developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), has also influenced Norwegian schools for many years.
Testing does not make a difference
The study shows that taking two to three fairly challenging maths tests during the first years of primary school had no impact on how the children later performed on the national numeracy tests.
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This was the case regardless of gender, background, parent's level of education, whether the children were born early or late in the year, or any other factors.
“We also find no evidence that early testing affects well-being at school,” says Green.
No miracle cure
“The most important finding, at least from this study, is that there is no miracle cure that dramatically improves educational attainment in maths or increases well-being at school,” says Green.
The study nevertheless identified some weak trends: The pupils, especially girls, felt that the tests slightly improved their interaction with the teachers and increased their engagement somewhat.
This could mean that concerns about tests reducing pupils’ well-being are unfounded.
“But this is something we haven’t measured. We used the pupils’ own assessments taken from the Pupil Survey that the same cohorts participated in later,” Green says.
Little evidence for what works
When asked if the study shows that Norway differs from other countries, the school researcher says:
“Despite much debate, there is little evidence of what actually happens when you increase the testing of young children. The reason is that the variations we observe are primarily between countries, while we lack data on what happens over time," he says.
In East Asia, children are tested a lot from an early age. But you cannot compare the academic performance of 8-9-year-olds in Japan with that of their peers in Norway or Finland, the researcher explains.
"We have not found any causal relationships," he says.
Researcher believes the tests still have value
Why test young schoolchildren when there is absolutely no evidence that it works?
“Some people want to discontinue the screening tests in Years 1 and 3, but I believe these tests do have some merit. Their implementation is cost-effective and they don’t hurt anyone," says Green.
He adds that they can also help even out differences by identifying pupils who need additional support.
"It's easier to help young children who are struggling than 15-year-olds who have been struggling in school for years,” he says.
He believes the big question school authorities need to ask is what they actually use the results for:
"Are the results important? Can we use them more directly to adjust teaching methods? In what way can they help teachers identify where and how to improve their teaching?" asks Green.
Zero stress from testing
Some of the pupils in the study had already taken two or three tests at lower primary level. At that age, the test probably felt more like a game, and the pupils probably did not think much about why they were doing the tests.
When it was time for the national tests in Year 5, some of the pupils had just completed the final test from lower primary school. Some of them had therefore been tested several times, with shorter intervals between tests than others.
It can be assumed, according to Green, that some pupils then began to reflect more on the purpose of it all, or feel expectations and increased pressure.
“But it appears to have no effect on them whatsoever. I was expecting to see a little more variation and a greater impact. Perhaps our findings would have looked different if we had used a sample, and the study had been scaled up to 300 schools instead of 81. But to be honest, I do not think the findings would have looked any different then, either," he says.
Reference:
Green et al. Does testing young children influence educational attainment and wellbeing?, Journal of Population Economics, 2025. DOI: 10.1007/s00148-025-01060-z
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Read the Norwegian version of this article on forskning.no
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