To be honest, I never really considered the problem of assessing young children. I remember the "once a Year" testing I did as a children and at the time I hated doing it. It cut into our play time. As I began researching the topic the first thing I noticed was the quantity of articles promoting different ways of assessing children. I changed my search criteria and then went into the Walden Library and eventually found and article by Phi Delta Kappan (1994). this article laid out some interesting problems with testing young children, at least in the 1990's. The first problem seemed to me was that the testing instruments that were used were old and inappropriate for the children being tested. This led to some problems. Some policies were developed based on the test results that excluded some children from starting or progressing in school because it was felt that they could not keep up with the curriculum. This curriculum was developed in response to the test results. Then then curriculum tended to focus more on cognitive tasks rather than developmentally appropriate education.
The article gave some 4 guiding principles in the use of assessment with young children (Phi Delta Kappan, 1994).
1. Tests should not be used if they do not bring about benefits for young children.
2. The content of assessments should reflect and model progress toward
important learning goals. Conceptions of what is important to learn
should take into account both physical and social/emotional development
as well as cognitive learning.
3. The methods of assessment must be appropriate to the development and experiences of young children.
4. Assessments should be tailored to a specific purpose.
The above article referred to the principles as set forth from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) extensively and so I looked at their 7 principles which pretty much correspond to the ones above. However I did see that they did the use of testing because it is necessary to support their learning and development and they have the right to have it done (NAEYC, 2009).
Assessing young children in Japan has to be prefaced by a short explanation of some of it's culture. Japan is one of the most meritocratic nations in the world. In Japanese culture who receive what status you have by merit and so there is vigorous assessment going on in their schools. Achievement is not the result of inherited intelligence, the result of effort. If a child fails, the failure is not the failure of the child, but of the parents and the teachers. The Japanese place a high value on acceptance and conformity of the group they are a part of. So children work very hard achieve the acceptance of their parents and teachers. They also know that hard work will give them the success they desire in society. In 2004 the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) instituted a new plan to provide a new assessment system, a new teacher quality program and a new renewal system for qualifying teachers. Since 2007 MEXT has initiated a new assessment tool and curriculum based on the assessments. This seems to be an ongoing process as they do the assessments, the curriculum changes. This new curriculum places increased emphasis on Japanese, social
studies, mathematics, science and foreign languages, with the hope that
students will develop “thinking capacity, decisiveness and
expressiveness” alongside content knowledge.
My thought at this point on assessing young children in our American schools that like Japan, if we are going to test young children, the tools we use must be up to date and appropriate for the developmental age of the child. I don't think we need to start so early that the tool itself actually does harm to the child. I think the whole point of assessing the child is to help the child succeed in life and be a person who contributes to society. If it doesn't help, why do it?
Resources
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The challenges of assessing young children appropriately. (1994). Phi Delta Kappan, 76(3), 206. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/218521938?accountid=14872
On Assessing Young English Language Learners. (2009).
Where we stand: NAEYC. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/WWSEnglishLanguageLearnersWeb.pdf
Center on International Educational Benchmarking: Japan. Retrieved from http://www.ncee.org/programs-affiliates/center-on-international-education-benchmarking/top-performing-countries/japan-overview/
