School districts are grading our children on test scores and grades, but there is more to each child than a test score. Most children cannot take tests. They panic in trying to answer questions and tests trigger anxiety in most people, not just children. It is a shame that someone somewhere feels that the best way to measure the growth of our children's education by taking a standardized test. There are plenty of other ways to measure how much our children have learned in a classroom. This also goes back to the fact that children with labels receive different assessments. Why is the norm for assessment a test where children fill in bubbles? Personally, just thinking about this makes my stomach hurt.
Ultimately, what standardized testing comes down to is that it does serve a purpose, but it can be detrimental to a child's well being.
In other parts of the world, standardized testing looks very different than the United States.
"In the UK, children will take 15-20 standardized tests by the time they are 16 years old. These tests help them continue their education." (Salaky, 2018)
In Japan, there are many standardized tests. But, there is only one test that will determine if they are even allowed to continue in high school. The test is so important that parents begin studying with their children in Kindergarten.
In China, there is a 12 hour test that determines each child's college career. It is taken over two days and it has a plethora of different topics on it.
I think it goes without saying that many places in our world put a huge emphasis on testing and it is a part of our education system, no matter where we live.
References
Salaky, K. (2018, September 5). What standardized tests look like in 10 places around the world. Insider. https://www.insider.com/standardized-tests-around-the-world-2018-9.
Leanne
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. There is far to much emphasis on testing for knowledge that we forget to continue nurturing the other aspects of the child. A child's emotional, physical and spiritual development needs to continue at least until they finish high school.
Thank you for sharing
Toni
Hi Leanne,
ReplyDeleteI know China is strict on education, but a 12 hour test?! That’s worse than our tests to get certified to teach! I agree that tests trigger anxiety and that certainly is not healthy for children. I too feel there is so much more that truly tells a child’s abilities. Sitting and taking a test for hours is not a natural everyday thing we need to do in life. Seeing children learn from building and drawing and working with others – it would be great if we could use more of these skills to really evaluate every child’s potential. But since tests not only allow districts to compare themselves to each other, States and Countries compare scores as well. With numbers being such an important factor in how we view progress and success all over the world, it unfortunately looks like testing is not going away or getting better any time soon. Thanks for your informative post!
Susan
Hi Leanne, thank you so much for your insight on assessing children. I agree with you that standardized testing is not an accurate or beneficial way to assess children. This testing platform does evoke anxiety and fear which is very detrimental to a child's well being. There are so many other stressors in a child's life that do not need to be overlapped with the stressor of succeeding on standardized tests. I like your idea of children being assessed on their spiritual, emotional, and physical well being. However, these criteria are not being assessed in standardized tests. There should be another kind of format or platform to assess these types of traits.
ReplyDeleteHi Leanne,
ReplyDeleteTestings really are the only way to measure growth and development. They can certainly provide a wealth of information for areas as far reaching as policy, to the basic child care organizations. Assessments can also introduce their own entanglements if the information derived from such measures is not evaluated objectively. Though I do not believe that any one particular test can provide evidence of the whole child, I certainly know that they are a good way to understand strength.
Hi Leanne,
ReplyDeleteYou views on standardized testing are very similar to mine. I also think that they do not represent the knowledge of the whole child and can be very stressful for both the child and student. I agree that many countries place great emphasis on testing however, I did a research on Finland and they have limited. Teachers do general assessments and students are allowed to develop self-assessment skills and create their own benchmarks on performance. The United States could learn a lot from Finland's educational system seeing that they are one of the best educational systems in the world.
Cynthia
correction I meant to say they can be stressful for both student and teacher, and Finland does limited standardized testing. I was typing to fast and left out some words.
ReplyDelete