Friday, October 14, 2011

Assessing Young Children

I am the first to admit that I am a horrible test taker. I experience test anxiety, always second guess my answer and overall do poorly on tests. It's unfair to judge a child's educational growth by one assessment. What if the child is having an "off" day the day of that very important assessment?? What if the child is experiencing stress or even abuse in the home? Doesn't that affect the scores on their assessments?? I personally believe that a child's educational success should not be judged by one assessment. Sure, I do poorly on tests but was very successful with writing. Currently, Georgia uses an assessment to determine if a child should be retained. I hope my daughter doesn't suffer my test anxiety/issues. I am positive that if an assessment was the determinant of my educational fate in elementary school, I would have been retained numerous times. I personally believe the whole child should be assessed.

Assessing young children in Spain
My sister (Meredith) is currently living and teaching English in Spain. I thought who better to ask about assessing young children in a different country than my sister! We talked briefly on the phone and she had this to say:
Teaching young children in Spain
Meredith (my sister) is on the back row
Children in Spain are grouped in Cycle's. Cycle 1 consists of 1st and 2nd Grade, Cycle 2 consists of 3rd and 4th Grade and Cycle 3 consists of 5th and 6th Grade. The child remains with the same teacher during the Cycle (at the end of 2nd grade the child moves to a new cycle and a new teacher). At the end of each cycle the young child is given an English exam. This exam does not determine whether or not the child moves to the next cycle. In fact the school has to pay to receive results. The child is assessed as a whole--their educational advancement is not determined by one test.
My sister and I are both similar--we agree with this method. She also did not do well on tests but look where she is now. She is living her dream in a country she adores! Imagine if her educational fate was determined by her test taking skills.

4 comments:

Janille said...

Wow,

I love the way that the educational system in Spain works with the children moving to the next grade with familiar teachers...this should be implemented in the U.S.

Anonymous said...

Assessements most definately should not be the end all. Students are more comofortable testing with a teacher they are familiar with...I can see why this works.

I'm where God put me said...

In the Early Head Start center that I work in, we do the same thing as your sister's school in Spain. We call it looping when we follow our children to their next level, so I end with being with the same children for two years. It really has it's pros and it's cons. One of the pros is that you're able to form bonds with the families, so the family and the children are a lot more comfortable to speak freely about how the child is developing. ONe con is the child, and parent at times, become too attached and won't allow other teachers to get close to them.

Jordan's EDU Blog said...

I WANT TO THANK YOU OVER THE PAST TERM FRO ALL THE INSIGHTS YOU HAVE BROUGHT FORWARD BEST TO YOU AS YOU PROGRESS IN THE PROGRAM

JORDANN