Testing is another controversial issue in childhood or even adulthood,
in my perspective. The reason being that it can easily label a person one way
or another. The benefits are many, such as helping assess teacher's delivery,
school curriculum, child performance and so on, but what about the results? Do they
describe the entire child? And how does the result impact that child?
I think assessing children is essential but I think it should be an
ongoing process with accumulating results and patterns that can be linked to
the child's growth and life experiences.
In addition, I think assessing the child should include all aspects of
their education and development and social interaction. So rather than focusing
on math or reading to assess children's competence, I would like to see assessments
done periodically (perhaps twice a year) on a child's knowledge of music,
science, geography, math, languages, physical education, art, and social skills.
Of course that would mean less tests on paper and more oral testing or
observations by educators or even by developmental psychologists, which is more
time cosuming but I think very worthwhile. It would be wonderful to find a way
to assess creativity and leadership traits as well.
Along with all these assessments, I would like to see a child's life
events documented in parallel with these scores, so that we can 'see' that
while parents were getting a divorce the grades may have declined a bit, or
during puberty or during a house move or a grandparent passing … and so on.
Similarly, the ethnic or cultural background should be included in these assessments.
Standardized testing has its benefits but leaves a lot of gaps in what
defines the entire child and for those who do not score well, it leave them
with a lot of explaining to do and a lot more to prove. In addition, those who
do score well have an added stress sometimes, of having to maintain such
achievements.
At our nursery, we assess all children three times per academic year
(10months), and we do it in all aspects of their development, but we do not
share the results with parents. The assessments are for us to catch any areas
of weakness within an age group, a teacher or a child. The results help us
improve our program for all children, and help us address any concerns without
the parents walking away with a label for their child. In fact, they do not
even know that we assess them.
Standardized testing in Finland
does not exist; or almost so (Taylor 2012). It seems that children have only one
mandatory test during their school education, which is around 16 years old or
at graduation. Teachers can choose when to give exams during schooling and
although there is a national curriculum, teachers are given a lot of freedom in
their teaching methods. Starting school age is 7 years old and there is hardly
any homework or exams until children are well into teenage (Taylor 2012).
The next question is so what. Are these children happy? How do they
compare with other children all over the world and do they go to college? The
answers are interesting because Finland scores as one of the happiest nations
worldwide, and using the PISA testing (Program for International Student
Assessment) they score amongst the highest worldwide in Math, Reading and
Science. The graduation rate from high school is 93% and about 66% go to
college; which are all high rates.
If we look at how Finland scored in the TIMSS and PIRLS tests in 2011,
we find that in math it was not too far ahead of the USA but amongst the top
scorers, and in reading they were in the top 4 countries, just like in science.
To add to these interesting facts is that all schools in Finland are
public and funded by the government entirely. To become a teacher, one must be amongst
the top 10% of their class upon graduation and then go to college and earn a master's
degrees in order to teach (Taylor 2012).
(page 2, para 1)
