Whilst I am critical of the size and formal nature of standardized testing, I fully approve of assessing student development from a very early age. As long as the tests are conducted in a non-threatening manner and the results are used to assist the child rather than judge the quality of their teacher I have no problem with it.
Children’s academic ability could be tested as soon as they start primary school aged four or five under plans unveiled by Nick Clegg.
Pupils are currently tested at seven to set a ‘baseline’ for measuring their progress in school.
But details of plans to do this during reception year emerged in a consultation document launched by the Deputy Prime Minister, which also includes plans to rank primary school pupils against their peers across the country.
This would see primaries having to ensure 85 per cent of pupils are ready for senior school or risk triggering an Ofsted inspection.
Pupils could also be ranked against their peers across the country, being put in 10 per cent achievement ‘bands’, showing, for example, if they are in the top 10 per cent.
Click on the link to read The Negative Effects of Standardized Testing are Exaggerated
Click on the link to read Standardized Tests for Teachers!
Click on the link to read Oops, We Seem to Have Lost Your Exams
Click on the link to read I’m Just Gonna Say It: Standardised Tests Suck!
Click on the link to read Too Many Tests, Not Enough Teaching
Tags: Education, Nick Clegg, Ofsted inspection, Standardised Testing, testing young children
Topical Teaching 
July 18, 2013 at 5:00 am |
There are many simple ways to test young children and there are many valid reasons for doing so. They do not need to be mass universal tests but simple criterion referenced, curriculum based tests to determine whether children have understood what is being taught. They can be tested to see if they are ready for the next set of lessons. That is to ask, “Do they have the prerequisite knowledge and skills to enable them to learn the next set of material?” or, “Is their cognitive development equal to the learning we are planning?”
When considered in this light perhaps not enough testing is done. Teachers are expected, in many jurisdictions, to teach to a syllabus that was written without due consideration of the stages of cognitive development. What then follows is a process of sorting and grading which reports, “Some get it, some almost get it, and some don’t get it.” Then the totalitarian car of juggernaut moves on leaving many children behind, sorted, graded and educationally abused.