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Testing for Intelligence?

This has always been a challenging topic for me as I come from a family who are all public school teachers. Over the past decade, we have seen a huge increase in testing and pressure on teachers to have all their children be successful in testing. I am a result of testing as I started testing in 3rd grade and had to do it every year after that. One of the main reasons I picked early childhood was the lack of standardized testing required by the government. The program I come from assess' children on where they are developmentally but not on intelligence.

I think the only testing children should ever have to go through is purely tests to see how a child learns best. Our education systems needs to move to meeting children where they are in the world of learning. We wonder why a child is struggling in school, I am a big believer in it's not a disability or a lack of motivation, it's the fact that we aren't teaching to them with the method that they learn from best. I think we should be working to view children in the moment and do on the spot observations to find where they are at academically rather then sitting through a test an expecting them to perform well. I am definitely not the best test taker and I know there are a lot of other children exactly like I was as a child. 

I read an article regarding standardized testing in China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan. This article started by discussing China and how standardized testing originated in China and is deeply rooted in their history (Ozturgut, 2011, p.2). The article goes on to discuss the other 4 countries but Korea stood out to me the most because of what was said regarding standardized testing. The article discussed how China had a heavy influence on the system in South Korea (Ozturgut, 2011, p. 3). In the past Korea has had a standardized test that was used for students to get into different schooling programs (public or private). Due to the inequality this has caused, Korea is moving towards a system that still includes a standardized test but involves students being randomly assigned to programs as long as they pass the state test. They are working to move towards a more "individualized education system" that is more focused on the "individual needs of the student" (Ozturgut, 2011, p.3).

I am wondering if the United States need to learn from Korea. It definitely does not sound like the system is perfect yet but, it does look like a step in the right direction. 

I think overall, we have put too much pressure on children and teachers when it comes to testing. If we can do simple testing to learn how a child learns best, we can tailor their learning experience around those results. My program used Teaching Strategies Gold as our assessment tool. Although TS Gold has a lot of kinks to still perfect, I believe their overall concept of on the spot observations is the best when assessing children. We then avoid test anxiety and the overall need to do something well because it's a test. If we are using observations to assess children, we will be able to see how they perform in "real life".

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Comments

  1. Rachel,
    I enjoyed reading your post this week. I have to say that I agree with you that there is too much pressure put on testing. I myself, dislike tests. I believe that children learn differently and that as educators we need to learn how learn how to accommodate our teaching styles to include all children and ensure we are meeting their needs. I agree with your testing methods I do wish that educators would have the same thoughts you have. I read about Finland, and I learned that there are not standardize testing for young children, the only assessment or test is done to graduating high school seniors for college placement. I also learned that there are no ranking or comparison which makes me understand why students are successful.. I also agree with you that maybe the United States educational system can learn from other countries.

    Anna

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