5-Year Olds Get Their Own Standardized Tests October 16, 2012
Five-year olds are getting their own standardized tests,
mandated in over 25 states, in a new Race to the Top
requirement. (And a way to get federal dollars.) What is a
standardized test anyway? The basic definition for a
standardized test is a test that administered and scored in a
standardized way, commercially prepared to measure a student’s
performance level as compared to others. According to Reuters,
in some cases, kindergarteners are given an hour-long multiple
choice test while other tests are one-on-one with a teacher.
Education experts, parents, and teachers feel concerned about
these tests for a number of reasons: - stressful for kids - too
narrow of a view of a child’s ability - lack of a post-test to
measure growth in some cases (FL & TX) Those parents and testing
proponents (politicians and test makers?) that are in favor of
the test are so because: - they want their children in an
academic kindergarten - it gives a way to evaluate th