Standardized testing refers to a kind of test which is typically administered and scored consistently. The standardized exams are made in a way that the questions, the circumstances for the administering, scoring processes and not forgetting the interpretations are also consistent and they are controlled and scored in a prearranged, standard way. Any test which is given to all people in the same manner, and is similarly graded in the same approach can be referred to as a standardized test. These standardized tests do not require time limits, high stakes or even multiple choices. The questions can either be simple or complex. The critical matter when it comes to the school-age students is the academic skills, whereas the standardized tests can be given on any topic ranging from creativity, professional ethics, personality, attributes or even driving test. The paper defines kindergarten education, discusses the reasons why standardized testing should not be carried out in kindergartens. Also, the aims of kindergarten education in social interactions of a kid are also discussed in details in the paper.
Kindergarten by definition is an educational approach for the preschool which is usually based on activities such as playing, singing and some easy practical tasks such as drawing, as well as the social interaction which helps in the transition from home to school for the kids. Standardized testing, therefore, should not be carried out in kindergarten because of the obvious reasons which are very important and makes a lot of sense. First of all, standardized tests are meant to assess on the general knowledge, of which a kid does not have at all, and basically, the kid is in the process of learning basic things like even pronunciation (Herman & Golan, 2013 ). The tests will force the teachers of the kindergarten to keep off from training the young ones from what is currently in their curriculum, for instance, the process of pronunciation, and begin teaching the test.
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Similarly, the items from the standardized tests are always not parallel with the typical skills which are taught in kindergarten, for example, the drawing, as well as the behaviors. The reason is, the questions of the standard tests usually are generalized to the whole of the population, making an assessment of general understanding and also knowledge, A 3-year-old child knows nothing about the population, and therefore this might be of no importance to the child in any way. Definitely, the child will be only attending the school just like any other child who has been taken to daycare because the child will not undergo any mental growth when it comes to classroom matters merely because they cannot understand what they are being taught.
Additionally, one of the main aims of the kindergarten is the social interaction as a way of helping the child’s mindset transit from home to school. Therefore, if the child happens to be subjected to burdensome tasks in their very early stages of school, this might demotivate them so much hence resulting in fewer children being interested in joining schools. The kids will not be having the joy to go to school, meet with new friends and play with them. Instead, the kids will be thinking of the hard terms as well as subjects which they have no idea of and they have to be taught, hence feeling discouraged. The children will take the standardized tests as a punishment.
“ Standardized tests assume that all the students begin from the same point of understanding,” said the head of the Center on Education Policy (Neill & Medina, 2011) . These tests might give an allowance for the direct comparison of data, but they do not account for the differences in the students who are partaking in the tests. For instance, the assumption of all students can speak in English might not be applicable and favorable in the kindergarten (Neill & Medina, 2011).
The reason behind this is that, the child is in the process of learning the very few words and things they are capable of, and therefore being tested on a language like English might be foreign to them hence making the teachers, as well as the children, appear as if they have been doing nothing entirely. Similarly, the standardized tests have tied the teachers to evaluate the children with these results which might not be so good at revealing each child’s ability. These results might make the teachers not to note which child requires a lot of attention since all of them cannot be having the same level of understanding.
A kindergarten child’s mind is too small, and it can therefore not reason beyond a certain capacity, as well as concentrating for an extended period, which the standardized tests call for always. Thus, the child might attend the school every day throughout the term but still end up scoring poorly. In addition to that, the child might be subjected to stress and severe headaches because of being forced to reason or another concentrate beyond their limits. Therefore, the standardized tests might lead to poor health conditions for the kids. “Standardized tests are mostly subjective by the non-academic factors such attention and also fatigue,” as reported by the National Research Council. These factors are too much for a child to offer or other experience and this will primarily result in the continuous failure of the children which will significantly discourage the poor child, and by extension, the teacher, as well as the parent and this, might end up leading to the collapse of the entire education system. Kindergarten is the foundation of education, and it also gives hope to the future of education, and if kindergarten happens to collapse, the future of the education system might be at the risk of ending too (Herman & Golan, 2013 ).
In conclusion, standardized exams are made in a way that the questions, the circumstances for the administering, scoring processes and not forgetting the interpretations are also consistent and they are controlled and scored in a prearranged, standard way. Any test which it is given to all people in the same manner, and it is similarly graded in the same approach can be referred to as a standardized test. Standardized testing should not be carried out in kindergarten because of the obvious reasons which are very important and makes a lot of sense. The items from the standardized tests are always not parallel with the typical skills which are taught in kindergarten, for example, the drawing, as well as the behaviors. The main aims of the kindergarten are the social interaction as a way of helping the child’s mindset transit from home to school. Standardized tests assume that all the students begin from the same point of understanding. These tests might give an allowance for the direct comparison of data, but they do not account for the differences in the students who are partaking in the tests. A kindergarten child’s mind is too small, and it can therefore not reason beyond a certain capacity, as well as concentrating for an extended period, which the standardized tests call for always. Thus, the child might attend the school every day throughout the term but still end up scoring poorly.
References
Herman, J. L., & Golan, S. (2013). The effects of standardized testing on teaching and schools. Educational Measurement: Issues and practice , 12 (4), 20-25.
Neill, D. M., & Medina, N. J. (2011). Standardized testing: Harmful to educational health. Phi Delta Kappan , 70 (9), 688-97.
