In today's academic environment, when it comes to evaluating children, the mostly widely used method is the standardized test. Standardized tests measure a child's knowledge in a certain subject. This is fine in theory, but in reality the methods for testing are unreasonable and the results are questionable. Standardized tests do not take into account students learning styles or test taking abilities. Instead all children are expected to perform at the same level regardless of aptitude. And are these tests measuring success of the child or the school? Generally, the school. How this is supposed to measure a child's true potential and success is a mystery to me. If we are to give standardized tests, then should they not be given at the beginning and end of the year to measure what is known against what they learn throughout the year? Teaching to the test has taken priority over teaching to standards.
One teaching method that has been recently developed is Whole Child Approach. Launched in 2007, the Whole Child Initiative is an effort to change the conversation about education from a focus on narrowly defined academic achievement to one that promotes the long term development and success of children (The Whole Child, 2013). The approach integrates the individual social, cognitive and emotional needs of learners into daily teaching. Seeing the child as a whole person with faceted needs and abilities, not just a student to be taught facts and figures to, is what is needed in our education system today.
In Taiwan, junior high school students prepare to take high school entrance exams in hopes of scoring high enough to be admitted to a prestigious high school, and then prepare for national university entrance exams so they can attend four year university. If they don't score high enough, they can't apply to these schools (Huang, n.d.). That is much different in the U.S. where entrance exams are not taken until applying for college and entrance exams are required, but students are not precluded from applying to most colleges by their scores.
References:
Huang, K. (n.d.). Taiwan and U.S. education comparisons. Retrieved from http://sitemaker.umich.edu/huangk.356/standardized_testing
The Whole Child. (2013). The whole child approach. Retrieved from http://www.wholechildeducation.org
BethAnn,
ReplyDeleteThis was a very nice post and I really enjoyed reading it. I agree with you on the thought that how are the abilities of children determined by a test. I also agree with you comment about basically giving the children a pretest and a posttest. I feel that this method will be able to show evidence of growth and what a child knew at the beginning of school as compared to the end of school. This will give the teachers an idea of what they child actually learned during the year and the knowledge they have coming into the class. This will also give evidence that the knowledge is there because if they mess up on the first one then they will have another opportunity to take the test again. A standardized test cannot assess the child as a whole so if they plan to master that concept they are going to have to come up with a way where the assessment addresses all forms of development that a child experiences.
BethAnn,
ReplyDeleteYou are so right. I don't think standardized testing is a realistic way to assess a child's knowledge of a subject matter. On the day of the test the child may not be feeling 100% and naturally they won't do their best, or the thought of taking a test might make that child so nervous that they can't focus on the test. I hated taking test and I was always a nervous wreck on the day of the test.
Japan and Taiwan's education system is similar. The children take a test in middle school and the results of the test determine which high school the child goes too. I can't imagine how that affects a child 's self esteem if they don't get into the school they wanted.
BethAnn,
ReplyDeleteYour statement about standardize testing benefitting the schools and not the students is so true. Testing is a big money venture for these companies who produce the tests. Some children from poor families encounter so many problems (hunger, crime, health problems, homelessness) even before they reach the steps of the school. So how can these students perform well on standardized tests?
BethAnn, I feel schools have a long way to go before they are able to accurately assess a child's success. There are many things that standardized tests don't consider. In addition to what you said in your post, how a child's home life is and the type of schooling they got before going to public school are factors that help in assessing the success. I enjoyed reading about Taiwan. It looks as if kids are strongly encouraged to go to college even before they have barely started junior high school. The difference in expectations between them and the U.S. is interesting.
ReplyDeleteIn New York Junior High School students have the opportunity to take a specialized high school exam. These specialized public high schools often produce graduates who attend top universities and colleges. Most students in undeserved communities do poorly on these exams. Not only does a cultural bias exist within these exams but preparation for these exams is only done at the private level. Students who fail these exams often find themselves in schools that they feel awkward and are often unchallenged.
ReplyDeleteStandardized testing promotes a Social Darwinist "Survival of the Fittest Mentality." The biases and prejudices of the system "validate" themselves through the exclusion and belittlement of others.