Testing for Intelligence?

      Whenever the topic of standardized testing comes up I tend to cringe.  Unfortunately, I believe that are schools have become to test happy.  Do to these test teachers are no longer as creative as they used to be when teaching the children.  When I spoke with a teacher recently who happens to be a neighbor, that teaches second grade in one of our local public schools, she mentioned that she really wanted to teach for a few more years, but she feels teaching just is not what it used to be!  Everything is based on the Standards of learning test (SOL’s).  She feels that they are made to teach to the test, therefore, there is little time to focus on a topic, she is forced to move forward at a rapid pace as there is so much information that the children need to know for SOL’s.   As technology advances so does the way these tests are administered.  Last year many of the test were taken on a computer instead of with paper and pencil.  This too presented another issue.  Not all children are relaxed when using computers, so now they are forced to test, which is stressful and now the majority is being done on the computer.  Standardized testing places a lot of unneeded pressure on students and teachers. I believe that assessment should be more ongoing.  Standardized testing tends to require children to participate in rote memorization and skill and drill review, which clearly does not represent the best way young children learn to retain information (Southern Early Childhood Association, 2000). Children learn better when they are given the opportunity to experience what they are learning (Southern Early Childhood Association, 2000).   Further, as our society becomes more diverse, standardized tests may not account for the variety of cultural aspects that are present in the classrooms such as languages, ages, and developmental capacities (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2003).  In my children's current school, children that did not perform well on SOL tests that were taken last year are now participating in tutoring in order to help boost their test scores for the upcoming year.  Therefore, they are missing out on the current class time.  This may make children feel that they are different from their classmates.  It is sad that are education system has fallen prey to teaching to the test.  Children are missing out on many creative learning opportunities.  I believe that children should be assessed on an ongoing basis and all areas of development should be considered.  I also believe that children would have more opportunities to learn more, if the teachers were not so stressed about having to teach to the test. 

        In Japan the early years are test free and the children are learning happily from creative caring teachers.  However, this all changes when the children reach their middle school years, they quickly become familiar with standardized testing (JapanToday, 2010). Clearly they have let the child leave the early childhood field and enter middle childhood before they are faced with the dreadful standardized test.  They are tested at the end of their sixth and ninth grade years and only the averages of scores are released to the public, however the test scores still cause pressure (Takayama, 2012). One thing is clear that standardized testing causes a lot of pressure for our children and our teachers!  

References

Japan Today, (2010, June 16). Japan and its standardized test-based education system. Japan

Today. Retrieved from http://www.japantoday.com/category/opinions/view/japan-and-its- standardized-test-based-education-system

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2003). Early Childhood Curriculum,

Assessment, and Program Evaluation Building an Effective, Accountable System in Programs for Children Birth through Age 8. Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/files/

naeyc/file/positions/CAPEexpand.pdf

Southern Early Childhood Association. (2000). Assessing Development and Learning in Young

            Children. Retrieved from http://www.southernearlychildhood.org/upload/pdf/Assessing_

Development.pdf

Takayama, K. (2012, April 17). National Testing in Japan and Australia: To Publish or Not to

            Publish Scores? Asia Pacific Memo Retrieved from http://www.asiapacificmemo.ca/