Assessing Young Children

When assessing young children, it is imperative that we look into all of the intelligences.  There are eight intelligences; linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist.  Every child, and adult for that matter, is able to excel in one or more of these intelligences.  All too often in the American education system, we focus on only two intelligences; linguistic and logical-mathematical.  Because of this, many children are labeled as being underachievers or learning disabled.  This is an unfair assessment, as many children who do not excel in math and language are musically inclined, are naturalists, fantastic athletes, or have great people skills.  It is important when assessing children that we understand that not all intelligence is based on standardized testing. 

In my opinion, standardized testing of young children is an unfair assessment of their intelligence and development.  If this kind of testing is entirely necessary, then we should be examining more than just the child’s abilities in linguistics and logical-mathematical.  I feel that additional testing of children should be given if they are unable to meet standards of linguistic and logical-mathematical testing.  This would enable schools to learn more about their student’s abilities, as well as assist in the development of each individual child’s self-esteem.  All too often, children feel as if they are “stupid” or incapable of success after doing poorly on a standardized test.  If a child’s self-esteem is shattered, it will make it more difficult for that child to have the confidence to pursue their goals or work hard in school to be able to continue their education on the collegiate level. 

Last year, I taught with a woman who received her education in Sweden.  After looking into Sweden’s ways of assessing their students, I am impressed with their national attitude toward educational achievement.  All citizens in Sweden are entitled to the same education until they reach the age 16.  After this age, they are able to enroll in upper-secondary school based on their grades received from teachers; not standardized tests.  Standardized testing is voluntary through grade seven.  When standardized tests are mandatory, the grades are simply used for the teachers to compare them to the rest of the country so they are able to alter their grading and teaching to improve their student’s performance.  I feel that this is the best use of standardized testing I have read of. 

I focused most of my reflection on this topic on standardized testing.  I did so because, after working at a public charter school in New York State, I was appalled at the focus and stress put on these students to pass the tests.  There would be weeks when I wasn’t “allowed” to teach any subject aside from English Language Arts in order for my students to pass.  This was detrimental for their ability to retain the information for the test.  They were bored with the subject and would therefore, shut down when I was trying to prep them for the tests.  I ended up bypassing my principals “rules,” and taught the students other subjects during these periods.  I would sneak a science project, or give them time to unwind after a long day of test prep.  After all, they were in fifth grade, not college. 

In the end, I was laid off due to enrollment after the fifth grade class performed higher than any other grade level on standardized tests in our school.  In addition, some of my students that passed the tests due to learning good test taking skills, were still reading on a third grade level and failing.  My principal, however, pushed them through to sixth grade regardless of my suggestions to retain, based solely on their standardized test scores.  This experience was a big reason why I left public schools to pursue a career in private or nonprofit organizations, where the main focus is not a number or letter grade.