I
strongly believe as an educator we should assess the child as a whole. I believe that the child should be assessed
and their skill level measured by looking outside high stakes standardized
testing. Social and emotional skills as well as critical thinking skills should
be assessed when measuring the child’s abilities and examining the child. I believe this is essential to children because
standardized test do not assess all of the important aspects of a child. Standardized test prevent teachers and administrators
from viewing a full picture of the child’s development. In England, school age children are assessed
by standardized testing as well, however a group of teachers recently refused
to administer the high stakes test. “British newspapers, including the Daily
Telegraph, are reporting that as many as
half of the estimated 600,000 primary school students due to sit for tests will
not take them because their teachers have decided to take a stand against them”
(Strauss, 2010). Teachers
should actively be involved with designing and developing an appropriate assessing
tool. I believe standardized test fail to give teachers and administrators a
full picture of the whole child. “Teachers in England
have some support from a part of the government. A House of Commons school
committee recently said in a report that the system of high-stakes tests
“reduced teachers’ scope” to be creative. The legislators called for more
informal assessment by teachers in the classroom, combined with a system of
sampling to keep a check on national standards” (Strauss, 2010). There
are many different ways to assess children.
A few suggestions of this would be to have teachers actively involved in
the development and the design of an appropriate assessment tool and assess
children throughout the school year keeping documented evidence of their continuing
improvement and growth. Some concerns
related to assessing young children are the stress level that the children are
put under often gives false test results, because children may not score as
high as possible because of the fear of high stakes standardized test and the
impact it has on their future.
Reference
Strauss, Valerie (2010, May).
Teachers refuse to give standardized tests to kids. Washington Post. Retrieved from Retrieved from: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/standardized-tests/teachers-in-england-boycott-st.html
I agree with you, I have friends who are teachers and we have talked about how they have to teach how to test instead of teaching what the children are interested in.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you the whole child should be assessed. My friend teaches forth grade and that is a testing grade, she has to also teach what's on the test and not what interests the child.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the tests create a lot of nerves and hostility in the children. I remember when I was in the states, there were several students that would begin to cry at the beginning of the FCAT test as well as others throwing up from the nerves. There has to be other ways.
ReplyDeleteEducators in the U.S. would face dire consequences if they decided to take a stand against standardized testing. I admire the bravery of the teachers in Britain. Our society and government put too much pressure on a test, it boggles my mind.
ReplyDeleteI must say that I strongly agree with you. Standardized testing should not be used to determine the way a child is assessed. Standardized test do not do justice to the classroom environment or the child as a whole. I think they work as a labeling process as well. Children true essence will never be seen through standardize test because of the stress and automatic representation that goes along with them.
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