School Age Assessment

          I would like to see observations play a greater role in assessing children’s achievement in all areas during the public school years.  In the preschool years, watching children as they play, interact with one another, problem solve, and develop knowledge about an array of topics is how early childhood educators determine how much children have developed psychosocially, biosocially, and cognitively.  An assessment tool, like Teaching Strategies Gold (the one we use at our center), relies on multiple observations for determining how far on a continuum a child has come for 49 areas of development that are divided between eight headings-physical, mathematical, language, literacy, science/technology, social studies, cognitive and social.  The core topics covered on the standardized tests are observed in addition to other areas important for a child’s success.   If a tool like this exists for preschool age children, why can’t one be developed for school age children, at least for the first three years of public school?  I realize that class size varies greatly between preschool settings and public school rooms, and teachers may feel they don’t have time to observe every child every day, but if classroom teachers are interacting with their students on a meaningful level, they are observing the students skill level all the time.  Adding some objective observations to the scores children receive on standardized tests would give a better view of achievement.   

            In Nova Scotia, Canada, children are assessed in reading and writing in grade three, mathematics in grade four, and all three subject areas in grades six and eight (Nova Scotia, Canada, 2012).  The third grade reading/writing assessment is composed of reading passages in four different genres and answering comprehension questions.  Students write one personal narrative and one procedural task entry (Nova Scotia, Canada, 2012).  The sixth grade reading test is composed of the same four genres as the third grade test and similar comprehension questions.  In the writing portion of the fourth grade assessment, students are asked to write one letter and one story.  The math test is made up of multiple choice (selected response) and problem solving (constructed response) questions that are evaluated for understanding and communication (Nova Scotia, Canada, 2012).  There was no information about the fourth grade math test or the eighth grade tests provided on the website because they have not administered them this year.

            I understand that school assessments need to be fair and equitable across our country, but what bothers me is how much emphasis we place on the results.  Not all children are confident test takers, as my younger sister was not, and the true level of their knowledge is not reflected on a standardized test.  My youngest child did very well on these tests but even though he received high marks, I knew the scores only reflected a small part of his ability.  They did not encompass who he was as a person, nor did it define his intelligences Berger (2009) writes about.  It is my belief that our country would restructure attitudes about our public schools, make kindergarten through third grade class sizes much smaller and put abundant funding into these years,, we could eradicate, or at least minimize, many learning, reading, self-esteem, and bullying problems among others.   

References

Berger, K. S. (2009).  The developing person through childhood.  New York, NY:  Worth Publishers.

Nova Scotia, Canada.  (2012).  Welcome, evaluation services, assessment schedule, minister’s report to parents and guardians.  Retrieved from http://plans.ednet.ns.ca/