Elisabeth Rosenthal: Testing, the Chinese Way
By Elisabeth Rosenthal is a reporter for The New York Times.
When my children were 6 and 8, taking tests was as much a part of the rhythm of their school day as tag at recess or listening to stories at circle time. There were the "mad minute" math quizzes twice each week. There were regular spelling quizzes.
We were living in China, where their school blended a mostly Western elementary school curriculum with the emphasis on discipline and testing that typifies Asian educational styles. In Asia, such a march of tests for young children was regarded as normal, and not evil or particularly anxiety provoking. That made for some interesting culture clashes. I remember nearly constant tension between the Asian parents, who wanted still more tests and homework, and the Western parents, who were more concerned with whether their kids were having fun - and wanted less.
I still have occasional nightmares about a miserable summer vacation spent force-feeding flash cards into the brain of my 5-year-old son - who was clearly not "ready" to read, but through Herculean effort and tears, learned anyway. Reading was simply a requirement for progressing from kindergarten to first grade.
But Andrew and Cara, now 16 and 18, have only the warmest memories of their years at the International School of Beijing - they mostly didn't understand that they were being "tested."
Testing of young children had been out of favor for decades among early-childhood educators in the United States, who worry that it stifles creativity and harms self-esteem, and does not accurately reflect the style and irregular pace of children's learning. Testing young children has been so out of favor that even the test-based No Child Left Behind law doesn't start testing students' reading abilities until after third grade - at which point, some educators believe, it is too late to remedy deficiencies.
But recently, American education's "no test" philosophy for young children has been coming under assault.
First there was No Child Left Behind, which took effect in 2003 and required states to give all students standardized tests to measure school progress.
Now, President Barack Obama's Race to the Top educational competition includes and encourages more reliance on what educators call "formative tests" or "formative assessments." These are not the big once-a-year or once-in-a-lifetime exams, but a stream of smaller, less monumental tests, designed in theory to help students and their teachers know how they're doing.
Some education experts hail the change as a step forward from the ideological dark ages. "Research has long shown that more frequent testing is beneficial to kids, but educators have resisted this finding," said Gregory J. Cizek, a professor of educational measurement and evaluation at the University of North Carolinaat Chapel Hill.
He said the prevailing philosophy of offering young children unconditional praise and support was probably not the best prescription for successful education.
"What's best for kids is frequent testing, where even if they do badly, they can get help and improve and have the satisfaction of doing better," Cizek said. "Kids don't get self-esteem by people just telling them they are wonderful."
Other educators recoil at the thought of more tests. "The Obama administration is using the power of the purse to compel states to add more destructive testing," said Alfie Kohn, author of The Case Against Standardized Testing. "With Race to the Top the bad news has gotten worse, with a relentless regimen that turns schools into test prep courses."
He said genuine learning in young children was a global process, while tests look at narrow and specific skills, and good teachers don't need tests to know if a child is learning. He added that for young children, good test results were more a function of whether children can sit still or hold a pencil.
Rather than a "low-stress tool to identify gaps in the learning process," he added, "they are used as a club to punish students who need help."
In Beijing, both of my children had subjects or grades in which they performed poorly. There was an entire elementary school year in which my son got consistently mediocre grades in math, in English, in everything, it seemed. It took endless parental cheerleading to maintain his self-esteem.
But let's face it, life is filled with all kinds of tests. At some point, you have to get used to it.
"Schools do a lot of nurturing and facilitating, and then it's a bit of a shock for children when they have to sit at a desk all alone and be tested," Cizek said.
When we moved back to New York City, my children, then 9 and 11, started at a progressive school with no real tests, no grades. They didn't last long. It turned out they had come to like the feedback of testing.
"How do I know if I get what's going on in math class?" my daughter asked with obvious discomfort after a month. Primed with Beijing test-taking experience, they each soon tested into New York City's academic public schools - where they have had tests aplenty and a high proportion of Asian classmates.
Elisabeth Rosenthal is a reporter for The New York Times.
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