In
an effort to assess and measure young children more holistically I believe that
there are areas that should be assessed and given more emphasis than results of
a standardized test. The most
important thing that should be measured is the child’s individual academic
growth by means of appropriate learning style testing.
Not
all children are entering school with the same base level of academic
experience. Some children are
coming from some form of pre-school where they have learned shapes, numbers,
and letters. On the opposite end
of the spectrum, some children enter school having no experience with academic
concepts and may not even know the English language. These two groups of children are clearly at different
beginning points in school. With
standardized tests, the second group of children is at a distinct disadvantage
when compared with the first group.
If the teacher devotes the necessary time to catch these students up to
the level of the first group, the first group is being deprived of
opportunities to advance their knowledge.
With standardized tests, there is no differentiation among what is
taught to the students. If
instead, individual academic growth is measured, all students can excel. One is not held to perhaps unattainable
expectations and the other is not held back from learning new things.
The
same way that not all students enter each school year on the same academic
level, not all students learn and communicate what they have learned in the
same manner (Berger, 2012, p. 346).
When assessment tests are given, they should be adjusted to meet the
learning styles of each student.
This way, the student is able to best relay the information they have
learned over the testing period. For
example if a child is a visual learner, assessments should be done in a visual
manner and auditory learners should have assessments that reflect the auditory
learning style.
The
country I chose to look at was Germany and see how their assessment system
compared to ours. Children in
Germany are not given any grades their first two years of primary education
(EADSNE, 2009). Instead, the
student’s progress and achievement levels are recorded in a written report by
the teacher (EADSNE, 2009). For
the remainder of their primary education, the students are “graded” based upon
a six point objective scale ranging from very good to very poor (EADSNE,
2009). While the United States
borrowed the concept of kindergarten from the German education system, kindergarten
in Germany is very different than the modern US version. While the US treats kindergarten as the
first year of structured classes, performance is not assessed at all in
kindergarten in Germany. Instead,
the year of kindergarten is used to develop language and linguistic skills in
preparation for upcoming school years (EADSNE, 2009). The German primary education structure had been unchanged
for centuries. It was established
as a performance requirement system, much like the US system, as far back as
1798 (EADSNE, 2009). In recent
years however, a movement has been occurring throughout much of Europe,
including Germany to change how children are assessed, spearheaded by research
of the Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA. Germany’s performance based education
system had placed them near the bottom of Europe’s educational systems (Pearson
Foundation, 2011). Germany is in
the process of reforming the assessment systems to increase their students’
competitiveness with the rest of Europe’s top school systems (Pearson
Foundation, 2011).
As
for standardized tests, I think my cartoon posting and quote by Albert Einstein
regarding making a fish climb a tree speaks volumes as to the results of these
tests.
References
Berger, K. S. (2012).
The developing person through
childhood (6th ed.).
New York,
NY: Worth Publishers.
European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education.
(2009). Mainstream
Pearson Foundation. (2011). Germany: Once Weak International Standing Prompts
Strong
Nationwide Reforms for Rapid Improvement. Retrieved from
