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Testing in Excess
December 4, 2015
Years ago, Mum went to a primary school that borders the park – for nature walks, right here…She remembers collecting oak and sycamore leaves, pines cones, conkers. All the children would lay their finds on a nature table – I wonder how many schools have a nature table these days. I know mine doesn’t.
-Dara McAnulty, in his book, Diary of a Young Naturalist
-Dara McAnulty, in his book, Diary of a Young Naturalist
"I could not have foreseen in my wildest dreams that we would be up against pressure to test and assess young kids throughout the year often in great excess — often administering multiple tests to children in kindergarten and even pre-K," bemoaned Nancy Carlsson-Paige, in her speech when accepting the Deborah Meier Hero in Education award by the nonprofit National Center for Fair and Open Testing. She continued:
"Now when young children start school, they often spend their first days not getting to know their classroom and making friends. They spend their first days getting tested. Here are words from one mother as this school year began:
'My daughter's first day of kindergarten — her very first introduction to elementary school — consisted almost entirely of assessment. She was due at school at 9:30, and I picked her up at 11:45. In between, she was assessed by five different teachers, each a stranger, asking her to perform some task. By the time I picked her up, she did not want to talk about what she had done in school, but she did say that she did not want to go back. She did not know the teachers' names. She did not make any friends. Later that afternoon, as she played with her animals in her room, I overheard her drilling them on their numbers and letters.'"
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Comments (3)
Displaying All 3 CommentsPenn State (retired)
State College, PA, United States
Like Nancy Carlson-Paige, I am amazed at how preschool and kindergarten have changed. It will take a revolution to get us back to where we were in the late 1960's (when I taught Head Start and no one worried too much about "lesson plans" as long as you had a good room arrangement, good equipment, and a sensible daily schedule). Sadly teachers, who often work alone, have to be the revolutionaries, and that takes more than just belief.
CSBC
Denver, CO, United States
We can do something about this horrible situation. The re-authorization of "no child left behind" is wending its way through the approval process in Congress. Much of it has, thank goodness, been changed. But the testing requirements are still in it. We need to force OUR representatives to take them out!
Pennsylvania, United States
It is so sad that this situation is happening in so many preschools---the test, always about the test because good test scores = funding. There is no regard for child development and playful learning experiences. I am so fortunate to teach at a parish preschool with no ties to state funding and state testing. Our children create, build, imagine, pretend, share their stories and feelings, and so much more. With all the information out there about how children learn, why does this testing still continue? Why can't the adults learn?
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