There is a presence of dissatisfaction surrounding standardized testing. While there are ways to elicit helpful information regarding academic performance, standardized testing provides only a limited view at a student's profile.
An article from Edutopia says, "'Tests don’t explicitly teach anything. Teachers do,' writes Jose Vilson, a middle school math teacher in New York City. Instead of standardized tests, students 'should have tests created by teachers with the goal of learning more about the students’ abilities and interests,' echoes Meena Negandhi, math coordinator at the French American Academy in Jersey City, New Jersey."
Harvard's Graduate School of Education looked at cortisol levels and standardized testing.
Their article says, "On average, students had 15 percent more cortisol in their systems the homeroom period before a standardized test than on days with no high-stakes testing. Students who showed the largest variations in cortisol between testing and non-testing weeks tended to perform worse on tests than expected given their classwork and performance on non-high-stakes tests, among other measures. Cortisol spikes weren’t the only culprit; some students’ cortisol dropped on testing days, which was also associated with lower performance.
'The decreases in cortisol is more a sign that your body is facing an overwhelming task and your body does not want to engage with the test,' Heissel says."
This data emphasizes the negative effect the pressure of standardized testing has on students' performance.
Sources:
https://www.edutopia.org/article/what-does-research-say-about-testing
https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/19/02/tests-and-stress-bias