*Michelle* Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Sounds like a great idea.:glare: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/25/us-usa-education-testing-idUSBRE88O05Y20120925 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 UGG. Why don't kids get the chance to develop anymore? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Yikes ... sounds a little Brave New World-esque to me. Let's decide their futures before they have had a chance to learn anything. Makes me positively ill. I've had late-bloomers. My late bloomer has superior analytical and critical thinking skills. I'd have hated to see his future decided by a test in K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Doesn't really surprise me, honestly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southernm Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 I skimmed because it made me sick to my stomach. I taught kindergarten years ago and even then we were slowly moving away from centers and towards testing. We were only allowed to have about 45 min of what the principal deemed "fun centers". We tested in K and now it's even worse. My kindergartener goes 3 days a week to a Christian School. They do K like it should be, without the fear of tests. It's wonderful. As to the ACT, it's just one more way for them to make money... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justamouse Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 This poor generation. We are gutting them, and then, when they are of age and steering the country, we'll wonder why everything is wrong. :confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbara H Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Ridiculous! I attended an ACT sponsored training for counselors. I expected to be all about the college admissions ACT test that I help highschoolers prepare for. Instead some of the training session was spent on a sale pitch for the other tests mentioned in this article, including the test of social skills or career readiness for middle schoolers. The reaction of the public school counselors attending the training was awesome! They were mad and made it very clear the problems they face helping kids in their schools has NOTHING TO DO with lack of data. It isn't that there isn't enough testing, they've already got huge files full of test data about students. The problem is they have caseloads sometimes of 500 kids and they are trying to cope with everything including social, family, and academic problems. Getting school districts to spend more money on testing benefits nobody but the test companies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneezyone Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Our state mandates a kindergarten readiness assessment for all kids enrolled in state-licensed PK programs, which includes my kids' private school. It doesn't mean much to me, personally b/c our family's standards far exceed the state's. The assessment is free and classroom-based. Still, in a state with very low educational attainment and lots of poverty, this screening helps identify those kids who could benefit from early intervention services and make sure they get them. I can't see the benefit of screening for anything other than basic readiness skills though.:glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbara H Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 The assessment is free and classroom-based. Still, in a state with very low educational attainment and lots of poverty, this screening helps identify those kids who could benefit from early intervention services and make sure they get them. I can't see the benefit of screening for anything other than basic readiness skills though.:glare: I can see the benefit of one on one assessments with teacher and student at the beginning of the year to identify kids who might need extra help or acceleration. That's something many schools have done for a long time. This ACT testing is a different kind of crazy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneezyone Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 I can see the benefit of one on one assessments with teacher and student at the beginning of the year to identify kids who might need extra help or acceleration. That's something many schools have done for a long time. This ACT testing is a different kind of crazy. Yeah, no. It makes no sense to pay for that sort of thing. They do the assessment at the end of the year and it's basically things like ID'ing colors, shapes, letters, numbers, sequencing, etc. There's no need to pay for that and it certainly isn't intended to predict future success. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 HMMMMM....let's see how that would play out. The ds who is currently studying JAVA programming for the AP exam and hopes to have his JAVA Professional certification before leaving for college, once doodled in the margins of a standardized test administered to him in K...his only year in a brick and mortar school. I suppose his doodling and refusal to answer the questions would have had him labeled "not college material". :banghead: Oh, and I want all of you to know that I took his failure very, very seriously and responded appropriately to the teacher when she expressed her angst. "Well, at least my son did the developmentally appropriate thing. Drawing is an excellent activity for five year olds." Faith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 makes me think of the old USSR soviet system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meriwether Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 HMMMMM....let's see how that would play out. The ds who is currently studying JAVA programming for the AP exam and hopes to have his JAVA Professional certification before leaving for college, once doodled in the margins of a standardized test administered to him in K...his only year in a brick and mortar school. I suppose his doodling and refusal to answer the questions would have had him labeled "not college material". :banghead: Oh, and I want all of you to know that I took his failure very, very seriously and responded appropriately to the teacher when she expressed her angst. "Well, at least my son did the developmentally appropriate thing. Drawing is an excellent activity for five year olds." Faith My sister, who spoke in complete sentences at something like 13-15 months and earned an engineering degree in college, flunked her kindergarten enterance exam. Can you count? Silence (and, knowing her, a glare). Can you say your abc's? Silence. Catch this ball - as she stands motionless as it rolls by. Mom was surprised when she got the news as she thought Sis was reasonably intelligent. When she asked the test giver what happened, she was told that Sis didn't do anything wrong, she just didn't do anything. Sis went to summer school to get up to speed.:rolleyes: I just can't imagine output at 5 being relevent at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnIslandGirl Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 I am a believer that "If a child has wings, let them fly". Testing is a great way to identify children of all ages for differentiated learning, but certainly must be re-visited often. I realize that I come to this topic from a very different place (after-schooler to a profoundly gifted daughter), but I see no problem with the article as it is not actually focused on "College readiness" as the thread title suggests. Even the Kindergarten teacher interviewed said that it is rewarding for both the students and herself personally to see the classes test results improve over the course of a year. Should the average Kindergarten classroom be void of dramatic play, music and manipulates? Certainly not! Knowledge is power, and knowing what areas students could use help in is a great tool to guide an entire classroom of students down a path of participatory learning that can be uniquely tailored to each child. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowbeltmom Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Makes me want to throw up really. :iagree: That was my reaction as well. Just one more way for the testing companies to exploit children and make money. It is disgusting what we are subjecting our kids to. How many 5 years old could sit through a 111 question exam? What will happen to those kids who didn't have the attention span to finish the exam? Will they be classified as ADD and medicated? This test frenzy is just crazy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 :iagree: That was my reaction as well. Just one more way for the testing companies to exploit children and make money. This exactly. And the bureaucrats fall for it every. single. time. I can't believe the idiocy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Michelle* Posted September 25, 2012 Author Share Posted September 25, 2012 I see no problem with the article as it is not actually focused on "College readiness" as the thread title suggests. On the contrary: But ACT will soon roll out college- and career-readiness exams for kids age 8 through 18 and Weeks said developing similar tests for younger ages is "high on our agenda." Asking kids to predict the ending of a story or to suggest a different ending, for instance, can identify the critical thinking skills that employers prize, he said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitten18 Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Makes me want to throw up really. :iagree: Ugh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 I think these quotations tell it all: * Each kindergartener wore headphones and listened to questions while a menu of possible answers flashed on the screen. They were supposed to respond by clicking on the correct answer, though not all could maneuver the mouse and some gave up in frustration, Knutson said. * Plus, when scores rise, both she and her students feel a genuine pride. "At the end of the year, it's like 'Wow, we really improved.' It's cool because you can see it," Knutson said. What exactly is the test score showing? That, at the end of the year, you can hold a mouse, which you couldn't do at the start? Why can't you tell a kid has learned something by looking at her drawings, his handwriting, her reading skills, his stories about the seed he grew, or her ability to remember songs? It is one thing to try to help kids who need enrichment activities or special attention, but something else entirely to think you should use them to steer kids to the stupid track. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 My sister, who spoke in complete sentences at something like 13-15 months and earned an engineering degree in college, flunked her kindergarten enterance exam. Can you count? Silence (and, knowing her, a glare). Can you say your abc's? Silence. Catch this ball - as she stands motionless as it rolls by. Mom was surprised when she got the news as she thought Sis was reasonably intelligent. When she asked the test giver what happened, she was told that Sis didn't do anything wrong, she just didn't do anything. Sis went to summer school to get up to speed.:rolleyes: I just can't imagine output at 5 being relevent at all. I've a friend whose daughter's kindergarten teacher expressed concern because she "had no pre-reading skills". :001_huh: she'd been reading since she was four. I'd read the kids stories, and she'd start reading the book aloud along with me. "muf, do you want to read or do you want me to read?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairfarmhand Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 my dh, brilliant guy...went to college on a full scholarship..engineering school!!!!!! Flunked kindergarten. Actually, he didn't flunk. He just never went back after the 3rd day. Day 1, he tried to chase the car home. Day 2, he slugged another kid. Day 3, the kicked the teacher. He was just not ready to be away from his mom at that point. (June Birthday) His mom didn't make him go. I'd hate to believe what a test would have said about him at age FIVE! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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