Computer Tests in Kindergarten?

 "Americans who truly want kindergartners to do well in the future need to back off with the testing pressure and let children learn naturally, introduced to formal schooling with well-qualified teachers to work at that grade level and who understand how they learn."

Early Childhood Educators across the country know that sitting a young child in front of a computer to assess their knowledge is not an accurate assessment of the child. Children need many skills to function in front of a computer including: hand eye coordination, reading stamina, understanding multi-step directions, knowledge of choice, an attention span that is exceptional and many other skills that are likely not the skills being assessed on the test itself. 

Any Early Childhood Educator will be able to express the power of observation. Allowing young children to engage in their environment and show what they know is exactly how "testing" should be for young children. An environment that is intentionally set up with developmentally appropriate activities in which a child can freely engage in to explore and learn the required standards from the state in which they live in is best practice. Why aren't educators able to do this?

What happens when best practice is faced with high stakes testing which are tied to funding? You know the answer, high stakes testing wins. When high stakes testing wins, the educators knowledge of best practice is tossed out the window leaving them feeling frustrated and unheard. If the adults teaching young children are feeling the stress of high stakes testing because they know it is not developmentally appropriate for their students, imagine how the child feels!

I recently came across this article Kindergarten Online Data? Teacher Observation is Safer and Better!  This article states the following regarding testing vs observation:

This is some of the information that is important to observe.

• How do children relate to other children?
• Do they have good gross and fine motor coordination?
• Do they like picture books and listening to stories?
• Are they able to remember simple tasks they’re asked to do?
• How do they think about playing with toys?

How does such testing hurt kindergartners?

• It isn’t developmentally sound.
• It places undue pressure on children.
• It wastes their time.
• It displaces a professional teacher’s expertise.
• It unfairly and inaccurately tracks children online.
• It wastes money.

Young children are skilled learners. They are born with natural curiosity for exploring the environment around them, they act like sponges as they take in new information. One way we can crush a child's natural instinct to learn is by forcing standardized testing. We know that this not an accurate representation of what a child actually knows. Standardized testing in young children increases anxiety, wastes valuable time that could be better spend engaging in the world and increases stress and frustration for the educators that know it is not developmentally appropriate for a five or six year old child. 

The question is, what can we do about it? When faced with knowing what is right for students and being forced to preform a useless task the educators hands are tied. It is a requirement that they students are exposed to these tests that really test nothing. One way that educators can support parents and children when high stakes testing is completed is by sharing the other piece of the pie. Educators can share the day to day tasks, observational data, individual areas of growth along with the state testing data. When these two items are presented together it can give a more solid representation of where the child actually is. This will help parents see that although your child might not preform on a computer test they are able to show what they know in real life situations that occur on a daily basis in the classroom. Is this time consuming? Of course it is, all observational data in early childhood classrooms take time. However, they also provide real life data that is not sterile in a multiple choice question on a computer test. In life, which is more valuable? A child that can demonstrate their knowledge in real life situations or a child that is a great test taker on a computer? That is for you to decide.