Assessment

What should be measured or assessed in young children?

Before answering this question, I feel that first it is important to define what assessment is.   According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education (NAECS/SDE), describes it as “A systematic procedure for obtaining information from observation, interviews, portfolios, projects, tests, and other sources that can be used to make judgments about children’s characteristics.” (NAEYC, 2006)  What this tells us there’s a variety of appropriate practices that should be used in an ongoing manner with young children.  

The point of assessment is to enable teachers and parents to track their progress over time, plan for their continued learning, and report effectively to each other.  Data and information will need to be collected in a variety of developmentally, culturally and linguistically appropriate ways.

I have found that I can gain the most information by observing children in their natural setting and taking objective notes and recording dialogues.  Other forms of assessment such as tracking progress through a list of standard skills, collecting their work samples and photographs in the creation of a portfolio for each student and parent notes and observations all put together give a more accurate picture of the child.  One single method does not measure where a child is developmentally.

The challenge is getting parents to see that this method is more in-depth and valuble then the “report cards” they often look for.  That is why creating a way to also include the parents in the assessment procedure is helpful.  I have done this by creting equal space for parents to comment and give feedback when sharing their evaluations.

References

Gosselin, K. (2004). Spotlight on young children and assessment. National Association for the
       Education of Young Children

Singapore

According to Rotberg (2006), testing in Singapore differs from the United States in that it is not done to evaluate teachers.  The main purpose is instead to determine student placement in their education system.  Over a 10 year span the students are tested to see if they are able to make it into more elite programs.  The better they perform the better school they can get into.  The thinking is that this will aid in training the students to contribute to the national economy.

I chose this country because I have been recently introduced to Singapore math in one of the schools I work with.  It is completely different than traditional programs in that the focus is more on problem solving through hands on manipulation then on memorization.  It turns out that this is a philosophy that the country is trying to move towards this model but it is finding that it is hard to change classroom practice since the test require students to memorize large amounts of material. 

Obviously we are not the only country that seems to have this gap between teaching for student comprehension and flexibility and teaching to the test.

References

Rotberg, I. C. (2006). Assessment Around the World. Educational Leadership, 64(3), 58-63.