Early Childhood Testing Emerges In US and UK

Testing early development has a new meaning: 2-year olds in England will be given mandatory "progress checks" under a new government initiative to determine early-age underdevelopment.

The English government announced Thursday that under a new proposal, preschools will present parents with written reports of their children's proficiency in using basic words, respond to sounds, communicate their needs and play with friends. Officials note that the assessment will allow for early diagnosis of developmental issues.

From The Telegraph:

[Compulsory education checks come] amid fears that too many children are currently starting school at the age of four or five without the skills needed to make a success of compulsory education. Almost half lack basic social and language skills, figures show.

But Richard House, senior lecturer in psychotherapy at Roehampton University tells The Telegraph that childhood development is so varied from person to person that the move to assess and diagnose at such an early age is "fraught with danger."

But England isn't alone. Phase two of Race to the Top, an education brainchild of the Obama administration, calls for early childhood assessment and pre-kindergarten readiness testing as early as the age of four.

This preliminary goal presented by the U.S. Department of Education has many like David Sirota of Salon and Valerie Strauss of The Washington Post balking.

According to Strauss:

There is something disturbing about an early childhood education initiative that doesn't seem to take into account how young children learn best. Where, for example, is the priority about ensuring that all early childhood programs provide creative opportunities for kids to explore and learn? That's how they best learn, myriad child development experts have said for years.

The institutionalization of standardized assessments for young kids threatens to turn preschool into an academic environment that is too regimented for youngsters.

Comments

[DeuxExMachina]

08:25 PM on 07/12/2011

They're assessments not tests to enter the junior ivies. As long as the parents are the only ones to receive these reports then it should be an aid to checking on a child's progress. After all parents take their children to pediatricians to check on a child's general health and development. These assessments provide greater detail of the cognitive development of the toddlers. I would want to know if my child may have autism, dsylexia or any other impairment that might be contributing to learning difficulties. That way any problem can be addressed early.

[ezla]

05:56 PM on 07/11/2011

Toddlers do not have the mental capacity to do many things and each child develops at a different pace. This "testing" is the stupidest thing I have heard and anyone who's ever taken even an introductory child development course could tell them that. Kids learn through experience, not by being taught. My neice had a huge vocabulary and was way ahead of other children because she was around many adults and spent lots of time outside exploring. Then she entered preschool and because many kids were raised in front of a TV, she had to adapt to their level and lost many of her words. Preschool isn't right for everyone, and neither is standardized testing. Besides how will they test kids? Kids need to be tested not by what they know or even what they've learn (at least, not at a young age). In order to see if there's no "problems," kids just need to be observed to see how quickly they're learning new things, which is what really matters. I expect it to take a bit for learning what a triangle and a square is, but if it's taking a while for a child to tell when something's too hot to eat, then I'd be worried about developmental issues, as these are things you learn the first 2 or 3 times from experience. You can have plenty of knowledge (what they're testing for) and absolutely no common sense (which is what's really needed in young children).

[sidnee]

02:32 PM on 07/09/2011

If the point of the progress check is to see how a child is doing--and then used to help fill in any developmental/educational gaps--I'm all for that. However, if the point of the progress check is to see how well children are learning AND THEN use that information to reward/punish schools, I'm against that. However, I do beleive that catching academic issues and dealing with them early on in the education process only benefits the children in the long run.

[levafrei]

01:34 PM on 07/09/2011

ALthough I am opposed to high-stakes testing, the way this is described sounds like an appropriate assessment of whether children may need some developmental intervention. I certainly would want to know how my child is playing with friends and whether he could communicate his needs. The question is whether the care providers will be skilled in this evaluation and whether the services are effective.

If on the other hand, this was an academic evaluation of skills that are being foisted on your children whether they are ready for them or not, I would be extremely concerned that the focus of the early childhood program is off base. Focusing or teaching reading earlier, for instance, is a distraction for the real needs of 2, 3 and 4 year-olds to learn by playing, develop self-control, and enoy a rich, stimulating environment in which to wonder, create and explore.

[chergoyle3]

10:08 AM on 07/09/2011

Early-early childhood testing doesn't even SOUND like a good idea. Not all two, three or four year olds are on the same page. Testing, even if the kids never know the scores, labels them for their parents and teachers as bright, not so bright or children from hell. (at 2, the percentage of the last category is relatively higher) We plaster them with the diagnosis of ADD, ADHD and a whole bunch of other letters that may or may not be accurate. Old-fashioned as I am, I believe that if you give most PARENTS the necessary tools, they will provide their children with a proper start in life. Some adult should teach children to read before they ever start school. Period. Thirty minutes a day is all it takes to bond with a youngster over something other than the television or computer. This is not rocket science - start with Little Golden Books - even the Kindle versions. Read cereal boxes, flash cards and the dictionary together. After a while, you can read your way through WalMart or Macy's. When the age of homework arrives, children should READ their homework to an adult. The grown-up may not understand the assignment, but should be able to tell if the child's reading skills are improving. Early childhood education is useful, but instead of sorting children it should be building a stronger connection between parent and child. Sadly, in many families, parents are decidedly disconnected from their children's education.

[LisaCACO]

12:57 AM on 07/09/2011

wrong, wrong, wrong, sick, sick, sick. There's no way I'd allow them to test my child. when she reaches that "magical" age of standardized testing, we will opt out. I encourage all parents to do the same.

[Gem Mayers]

10:12 AM on 07/09/2011

agree....such a proposition made me sick to my stomach. My son will not be tested at age 4, I can tell you that.

[Jenn May]

12:20 AM on 07/09/2011

When is enough, ENOUGH? Freaking ridiculous!

[umbrarchist]

10:57 PM on 07/08/2011

Can these people figure out when they are being ridiculous or are they just creating more jobs for bureaucrats?.

[J R M]

06:46 PM on 07/08/2011

My brother managed a lot of doctors. His advice to them about testing was that they could order any test they wanted - but that they had to be able to tell him how the result of the test would change / improve the course of treatment.

What are you going to do if a 2 year old tests delayed? If you aren't going to do anything or can't do anything, why bother? My kids were a bit delayed on language, but this is typical in bilingual households.

By age 2 there is a development gap among children (on the average) that that persists until adulthood: the children of college educated mothers are more advanced than the children of mothers who have some college and so on through mothers with high school and less education. I don't think we even know what the mothers are doing that has such a permament impact.