This reminded me of my dad. 100%. He taught me fairness through lessons with my older sister; and he taught me how to have integrity.


Another quote I found that touched me was:

"While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about."
~Angela Schwindt

I am much more excited today, this excitement has grown over the last eight weeks, that my husband and I have decided to start trying for a family. I have gained so much new insights to early childhood, I see my career as a teacher differently, and I look forward to future endeavors in this field.

Standardized testing and school-age assessments

I ‘googled’ school age assessment around the world and found a website about European countries putting the most pressure on children in school (Cassidy, 2008). Even the parents are pressured to pick schools for their children based on previous test scores! (Cassidy, 2008) Children in this age range are being prepped for their SATs! (Cassidy, 2008) In Turkey, children are tested for future school purposes, like high schools (Rotberg, 2006). Also in Japan, children in this age range are not evaluated by achievement tests until they are of age for upper secondary school (Rotberg, 2006). I share information about several countries because I do not have a personal affinity to any specific one, I was curious to know more about all that was happening in the great big world.

I also came across a summary from UNICEF on the child well-being. In 21 nations, six dimensions were studied and reported to compare children: material well-being, health and safety, educational well-being, behaviors and risks, and subjective well-being (UNICEF, 2007). This, is what we should be more focused on than standardized tests. In order to focus on the whole child, we need to look at cognitive ability with social relationships and problem-solving. Berger (2009) lists criticisms of IQ testing and states that humans have multiple intelligences (including academic, creative, practical, and emotional). Howard Gardner also described nine intelligences in his research (Berger, 2009). We need to be focused on this idea of multiple intelligences--NOT just cognitive abilities. I have no explanation on how to do all of this, but I feel that the most effective testing would include social settings, culture, logic, and creativity.

Honestly, I can see pros and cons for intelligence testing, like standardized tests. Assessing through tests can keep teachers accountable for what they are spending their time doing in the classrooms. However, it puts huge pressure on those students to not only learn the material, but to reflect it in a test that was made by complete strangers who know nothing about daily discussions in the classroom or students’ interests. Testing is a way to find strengths and weaknesses in children’s cognitive abilities; therefore, professionals can work with these students to strengthen their abilities. However, how much do those children use from all that knowledge taken in for testing later on in life? I am not interested in history. It has always been my weakest subject. It was also my lowest scores on standardized testing. But what do I do with any of those facts and timelines now? Nothing really. Children learn best about things they are interested in. High quality teachers know how to make some subjects interesting to learn about to keep their students’ interests. But standardized testing is standard, the same across the board. I also naturally have anxiety when it comes to testing and being evaluated…what if students just have a rough morning and do not do well on these tests? Plus, how can there be truly standardized testing across the nationalities when language and culture differ so much?

Additionally, I came across what looks similar to a blog, but it is about the pros and cons to standardized testing. Margie (2011) lists out different advantages and disadvantages to these tests. Some advantages include: tracking results over years (to see how much more children are learning), being able to compare children across areas (although it mentions across cultures and I do not think this is a positive note because we have seen such different cultural values in our text!), and it helps keep teachers on track (which is then two-fold). Some disadvantages include the teachers teaching by the test instead of truly teaching; and the pressure put on schools, districts, teachers, students and parents. (Margie, 2007)

　

Berger, K. S. (2009). The developing person through childhood (5th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

Cassidy, S. (2008). Our children tested to destruction. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/our-children-tested-to-destruction-779790.html

Margie. (2011). Pros and cons of standardized testing. Retrieved from http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/16137.aspx

Rotberg, I. (2006) Assessment around the world. Retrieved from http://www.csun.edu/~krowlands/Content/SED610/Leadership/Leadership%20Reader/Assessment%20Around%20the%20World.pdf

UNICEF. (2007). An overview of child well-being in rich countries: A comprehensive assessment of the lives and well-being of children and adolescents in the economically advanced nations. Retrieved from http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/rc7_eng.pdf