NY State United Teachers SUPPORTS Testing for Kindergarten

Susan says "Shame"

Outrages (Susan Ohanian Speaks Out)_ 
(http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=9780) 

States Ready Tests for Kindergarten 

Ohanian Comments: It's unfortunately no surprise that state functionaries--and the New York State United Teachers (for shame!)-- succumb to the lure of money and agree to engage in practices that are, at best, pretty much useless. Federal policy already put DIBELS testing into kindergarten. 

See Kindergarten teacher details lunacy of standardized tests for kids for the 27,000 data entries kindergarten teacher Nancy Creech must make every year. She notes: "I am spending so much time recording "formative" assessments that I don't have time to evaluate the meaningful assessments and plan for instruction, much less time to actually teach!" When is she supposed to fit in another test? Where's the evidence this new test has any validity? It is shameful that government functionaries put a scramble for federal money on the backs of five-year-olds. It is worse than shameful that the federal government uses OUR tax dollars for this purpose. 

WSJ Article below

  By Lisa Fleisher (WSJ)

New York and New Jersey are preparing to administer mandatory school-readiness tests to children as young as 4 years old in an effort to win millions of dollars from the federal government. The states submitted applications this week for the newest round of federal Race to the Top money, the Obama administration's signature education program. The competition gives more weight to bidders that perform wide-ranging assessments of children in the first few months of kindergarten. In New York, they would gauge children's language, math, science and literacy skills, as well as emotional and physical development, and general knowledge. The results would provide a baseline measure of each student's skill level when he or she enters the school system, according to a proposal the Board of Regents approved this week. The test results, however, wouldn't force students into special education classes or block them from school, officials said. If New York secures the money, it would begin the assessments in the 2014-15 school year, according to the proposal. The program would cover about 200,000 children annually and represent the largest expansion of mandatory and uniform assessments in the state since 2006, when New York began requiring exams in grades three and five through seven. Officials stressed the kindergarten assessments wouldn't resemble the high-pressure exams taken by older children. Still, as New York relies more and more on testing to measure student and teacher performance, any expansion of testing is likely to fuel the debate over its value, especially among young children. Nationwide, 25 states require kindergarten assessments, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. New York already does some limited screening of young students: Schools look for hearing and vision problems, as well as signs of disabilities. Some individual schools evaluate kindergarteners for reading and math skills at the beginning of the school year. Yasmina Vinci, executive director of the National Head Start Association, said the apparent emphasis on academics in the state assessments could draw attention away from other factors that influence learning. "It's just very reductionist," she said. "It doesn't get to getting kids ready to really succeed, both in school and then later in life." Richard Iannuzzi, president of the New York State United Teachers, said he supports the proposal as long as the state uses the results sparingly. "It's a precious time and a delicate time to be testing children," he said. "We need to be very careful how we do it and what we read into those results." The data collected would help shape policy in New York, but it would not be used in so-called high-stakes decisions, such as teacher hiring, firing and pay. Although the federal funding would be worth up to $100 million for early-childhood learning in New York, the money wouldn't be used to cover the $4 million needed to perform the assessments over four years. New Jersey will proceed with assessments for about 118,000 kindergartners regardless of whether it wins the $60 million for which it is eligible, said Justin Barra, a spokesman for the state Education Department. Mr. Barra said there would be a major difference between tests given to older children and the observation-based assessments for kindergartners. "Basic things, like a teacher stands over a kid's shoulder, watches him read and takes notes about how he's doing," he said. "To be clear, it's not like a bubble test. The kids aren't filling out paperwork. We're not scanning things in."
— Lisa Fleisher Wall Street Journal 2011-10-21 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204485304576643590479063456.html?mod=djemITP_h

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