Assessment is such a huge part of a 7-11 year olds life due to No Child Left Behind. It is because of this that schools have been pushed to teach towards a test and make sure child pass this test, so that they do not lose funding for their schools. All children in schools, even ESL and Special Education students will soon be required to receive a passing grade on these tests or funds could be lost.
To me it really makes no sense at all. When I was doing a long-term sub position for 8th grade English, ISAT testing was coming up and everyday the principal would come visit me to see what kinds of things we were doing to prep for the tests. It was the only time he ever came to visit our room while I was there. Too much importance is placed on these tests and it stresses out administrators, teachers and children.
There are many problems I see with standardized tests (multiply choice, fill in the bubble). The first is, what if a child is learning English as a second language? There is a lot of cultural bias in standardized tests. There may be vocabulary on the test the child is unfamiliar with or whole sentences they may not understand. How is a child going to do well on this test and how is that even fair to the child?
The second part of standardized testing that I do not like is that it teaches memorization of facts and nothing else. Children do not know how to apply what they've learned to real life situations. Just because a child does well on a test, doesn't necessary make them smart and if they do poorly, it doesn't mean they are dumb. What if they didn't sleep enough the night before or simply, do not care?
The third thing I do not like about standardized testing is that social studies is completely left out of these tests (at least in Illinois it is). Part of my passion for this lies in the fact that I majored in Social Sciences in undergrad, but isn't it important to understand our location in the world and the affects we have on others, among other things? This information is completely left off of standardized tests. There is also no part for testing social skills, which is really important, especially for children 7-11 years old.
Now that I'm done ranting about my dislike for standardized testing, there are some ideas I have about methods of assessment that can be available for children. Gardner discusses multiple intelligences and I truly believe in these and think that assessments should be made available that fall under all of these intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. An assessment you could do is allow children the choice of working individually or with a group. If they choose to take the assessment on their own, it can be a standard logical test. If they choose to work in a group, this covers intrapersonal and interpersonal because the children have to work together as a group and also find their role in the group. Then you give the children a choice of how they will complete the assessment. They have to act out something, they could make up a song or dance number or create something, such as a diorama that explains what they have learned. All of the learning styles are covered, so each child could choose how they best learn and you would still have a way to assess each child.
For children that are not to the age yet of going this in depth on an assessment, I do not really feel any standard assessment is necessary. Allow the child to play and move freely within their own environment and observe them. A teacher will learn a lot through these observations and you will get to see what the child excels in and what they are struggling with. Through these observations, you can formulate goals and a plan of action to help the child learn to their full potential.
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