As an educator, I get to see the pressure and long term effects of assessing students. I am totally against the way we test in the US. Here in Mississippi our students test 3 times a year on computers to show academic growth. Some children aren't good test takers, develop test anxiety, or can be having a bad day. There needs to be a whole child assessment by using observations of behavior, social and emotional, and academics.
In other countries like China children are trained for years to take an entrance exam to get in to Upper schools. Now this is pressure. It's similar to the 3rd grade exit exam in MS.
Students need to be evaluated and assessed, but not that often . Children are developing test anxiety before 3rd grade and this can be an ongoing problem in their life.
It seems like the type of pressure that is felt in the US around test taking is magnified in China. I am grateful to have grown up in a time when standardized testing was not filled with as much pressure. I remember taking what were called the CATs and that would reflect what percentile you were performing in but I do not remember them being connected to advancement to the next grade. I feel like it was understood that testing is not the way to evaluate the complete picture of a child's learning and development. Changes in policy over recent years have caused us to have a skewed idea of what learning looks like.
ReplyDeleteWendy
I totally agree with the anxiety on these kids. And actually its anxiety on the educators also if the kids does not test well they look down on the school system. So I agree this testing should change.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI too think that we can take some of the approach that China use to teach their children (a little less training) to add to our teaching and I think our children could really shine.