Student test results – and should they be tested in kindergarten?
State test scores were released Thursday, for which student performance in part determined which schools landed on the NCLB-mandated 2008 Needs Improvement list.
Here’s a little more detail on how students fare on the different tests (click to enlarge):
Also Thursday, I ran across a story about how New York City officials want to give math assessments to kindergarteners. As you might imagine, there’s some debate over whether that’s too young an age for standardized testing. The full story is here.
Feel free to share your thoughts on these assessments or the Needs Improvement list below.
Wendy Kleinman
The Oklahoman
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I’m not sure what NY is doing, but Oklahoma does do basic test for Kindergarten students. It’s not 90 minutes or specifically math, but students are assessed for understanding and improvement. As an early childhood teacher/counselor and the mother of a kindergartener, I think this is crazy! Children this young are working so hard to sit still and listen to a story and we want them to handle 90 minutes of testing??? When do we listen to the experts and let children learn at the proper developmental level? Let’s not burn ‘em out before they even know how to read!! Also, when are teachers expected to get one more thing done in the day? Who’s volunteering to ‘watch’ the other 20+ kids while the assessments take place? Let’s be reasonable at some point!