Is Testing Preschoolers a Good Idea?

11/17/2006

Is Testing Preschoolers a Good Idea?

We will be known by the tracks we leave behind.
Dakotan Proverb

A recent Washington Post article, "The Rise of the Testing Culture: As Exam-Takers Get Younger, Some Say Value Is Overblown," raised some interesting issues about testing:

"Along with painting and gluing and coloring and playing, Kisha Lee engages the youngsters in her day-care program in another activity: testing. Three- and four-year-olds take spelling tests of such words as I, me, and the, as well as math tests, from which they learn how to fill in a bubble to mark the right answer. Test preparation for children barely out of diapers is hardly something Lee learned while getting her education degree at the University of Maryland, she said. But it is what she says she must do — for the kids' sakes — based on her past experience teaching in a Prince George's County elementary school.

"'Kids get tested and labeled as soon as they get into kindergarten,' said Lee, who runs the state-certified Alternative Preschool Solutions in Accokeek. 'They have to pass a standardized test from the second they get in. I saw kindergartners who weren't used to taking a test, and they fell apart, crying, saying they couldn't do it. The child who can sit and answer the questions correctly is identified as talented,' Lee said. 'It hurts me to have to do this, but it hurts the kids if I don't.'

"Lee's approach underscores the culture of testing that reigns in the United States. Americans like tests so much that they have structured society around them. Newborns are greeted into the world with the Apgar test to measure activity, pulse, reflex, appearance, and respiration. Getting a 3 or below is like getting an F. Soon to follow are assessments — the first of many — that will compare them with their peers. Are they crawling, sitting, walking at the correct age? In no time, kids are facing tests to measure school readiness. Four-year-olds are tested in literacy and math in Head Start programs, and kindergartners undergo tests to see who is 'gifted.' By then, they are firmly ensconced on the testing treadmill.

"'We are obsessed with tests,' said Occidental University education professor Ron Solorzano, who used to teach in Los Angeles public schools. 'We are pretty much preparing [kids] for the SAT at the age of 6.''

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