Testing for Kindergarten

"When the New York City Education Department announced that it was changing part of its admissions exam for its gifted and talented programs last year, in part to combat the influence of test preparation companies, one of those companies posted the news with links to guides and practice tests for the new assessment," reported the New York Times (February 17, 2013)

"Assessing students has always been a fraught process, especially 4-year-olds, a mercurial and unpredictable lot by nature, who are vying for increasingly precious seats in kindergarten gifted programs. In New York, it has now become an endless contest in which administrators seeking authentic measures of intelligence are barely able to keep ahead of companies whose aim is to bring out the genius in every young child.

'It's something the schools know has been corrupted,' said Dr. Samuel J. Meisels, an early childhood education expert who gave a presentation in the fall to private school officials, encouraging them to abandon the test. Excessive test preparation, he said, 'invalidates inferences that can be drawn' about children 'learning potential and intellect and achievement.'

Contributed by Zvia Dover

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