I must say that I am so not familiar with a lot of the "new" assessments out there in the education world. I deal with 3-5 year olds and their parents - I don't have the opportunity to use rubrics or e-portfolios or any of the other tools out there. I use a standardized assessment with each child and I have to state each instruction exactly as my "teacher" book says and lay out tasks for each child the same way every single time. I hate standardized testing, actually, and don't think it's the best way to assess some of my kids. I don't think I always get a true picture of what each child can and cannot do. Also, there are two sections (adaptive and personal/social skills) that are compiled mostly of parent interview questions. Wanna take a guess on how many children actually qualify in those areas based on that parent report? :) I'd say 90% of the time we get glowing reports on everything that child can do. Now, luckily, I do observations, as well, before I put my final report together, so I can use my professional judgement and see that little Suzie isn't actually doing many of the things Mom or Dad reported that she was. There's also the scenarios where the child is having a bad day or doesn't test well or sit for more than 2 seconds. My schedule does not allow me to go to a child's house every day for a week to get a clear picture, so I have to go on what he/she did the day of the test. It's very frustrating sometimes and I wish that there was some other option for me to use in the preschool setting, but alas, if there is, the powers-that-be haven't found it yet.
I do get to use a portfolio assessment, however, at this age, it's not online anywhere. We do try to collect samples of work (coloring, writing name, ABCs, cutting examples, etc.) to go along with our data collection for progress monitoring or to show that a child has accomplished a goal on their IEP. I guess that's about as close as I get to the types of assessment we've been discussing in class and we're nowhere near acquiring 21st century skills - I'm just trying to make sure they got basic developmental skills nailed down before sending them off to the "big school"!
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I'm sorry to read they do standardized assessments on little children. This is not what children need; who came up with this idea?
ReplyDeleteDon't feel too left behind... Some of the issues you've mentioned about standardized testing are present in schools. I agree that they do not portray all of the child's capabilities. In undergraduate school, I had a professor, Dr. Corbett, who taught the intro to reading instruction class. I still remember what he said about standardized testing- a test is a reflection of what one student can do on one test on one day. It's a disservice to base educational decisions based upon that one test...
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