Testing in Excess

12/04/2015

Years ago, Mum went to a primary school that borders the park – for nature walks, right here…She remembers collecting oak and sycamore leaves, pines cones, conkers. All the children would lay their finds on a nature table – I wonder how many schools have a nature table these days. I know mine doesn’t.
Dara McAnulty, in his book, Diary of a Young Naturalist

"I could not have foreseen in my wildest dreams that we would be up against pressure to test and assess young kids throughout the year often in great excess — often administering multiple tests to children in kindergarten and even pre-K," bemoaned Nancy Carlsson-Paige, in her speech when accepting the Deborah Meier Hero in Education award by the nonprofit National Center for Fair and Open Testing. She continued:

"Now when young children start school, they often spend their first days not getting to know their classroom and making friends. They spend their first days getting tested. Here are words from one mother as this school year began:

'My daughter's first day of kindergarten — her very first introduction to elementary school — consisted almost entirely of assessment. She was due at school at 9:30, and I picked her up at 11:45. In between, she was assessed by five different teachers, each a stranger, asking her to perform some task. By the time I picked her up, she did not want to talk about what she had done in school, but she did say that she did not want to go back. She did not know the teachers' names. She did not make any friends. Later that afternoon, as she played with her animals in her room, I overheard her drilling them on their numbers and letters.'"

Gryphon House - Pre-Literacy Resources for Infants and Toddlers.

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