If you thought high stakes accountability was problematic for 8 and 9 year old third graders, you should be alarmed/horrified by this article that appeared in yesterdays Waco Tribune which details something I testified about last Spring before the Texas Legislature: high stakes testing for preschoolers. That's right, Texas appears to be heading down exactly the path I feared where pre-kindergarten and head start schools will be graded by the success of 4 and 5 year olds on an accountability test. The school will receive a "seal of approval" based on the success of its students on an unproven test given by the same group that will then judge the effectiveness of the test. Oh, and that same group will then seek additional funding in the next legislative session based on the test it developed, implemented, and then judged.
Spring Branch has to date refused to participate in this program (except for our students who come from an out-of-district head start program) based on the fact that the curriculum that is being tested is substantially behind what we offer in our highly acclaimed pre-K program. However, as a result, we have been told that our State funding after this year is at risk. Indeed, I was told in Austin last Spring that our program is simply "too successful" to continue to be funded.
If I hadn't predicted this, I'd be surprised. Instead, I continue to simply be dismayed.
______________________________________________________
John Young: Testing from cradle to grave
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Back to school we go, with a whole new set of “accountability” measures: for preschoolers?
You may rub your eyes.
They aren’t mandatory, but
give policymakers time. We see that those who talk the talk of “less
government” and “local control of schools” inevitably walk the walk of
top-down control and corporate-style directives from afar. What is with these people? Why do they trust government so? Isn’t that original sin if you’re a conservative? Over the last six years, big-government conservatism has taken full
flower — whether in nation-building, eavesdropping, morality policing
or finding endless ways for well-respected anti-government types to
trust in top-down government control. The most egregious example is what’s happened to public schools.
Somehow we have decided to hand more and more power to far-off educrats
and executive-branch power mavens. In the process we’ve taken something
— teaching — that ought to be personalized and creative and made it
into something mass-produced, programmed and copyrighted. What were we saying about preschoolers? Our state has become the first to certify preschools, day-care
centers and Head Start based on how they prepare children for
kindergarten. Nothing necessarily wrong with that. If Head Start isn’t
helping prepare students for school, what’s it doing? The problem is with that corporate, top-down mentality so evident
these days. Someone, generally a political ally of the ruling clique,
comes up with a set of “accountability measures,” a curriculum, a test,
and sells its infallibility to its friends in high places. In Texas, the new School Readiness Certification System has been
implemented, with about 450 prekindergarten classrooms recently getting
the seal of approval. Sounds peachy, but These may be great operations, indeed, the very best. But many
observers worry about putting too much stock in “testable” criteria and
that putting academic pursuits above all will warp the preschool
experience. The Bush administration has pushed an initiative to remake Head
Start into a reading readiness program — as if the other dimensions of
acclimating to group dynamics, washing one’s hands, learning to share
the pencils and being 4 years old aren’t enough. Many early educators
have pushed back. Pursuant to their concerns, bills reauthorizing Head Start in
Congress eliminate toddler testing. Ah, fudge, say those who would love
to sell their tests to every preschool in America. In Texas, the high priestess of pre-K accountability is, not surprisingly, a friend of the Bushes. Susan Landry, director of the Texas State Center for Early Childhood
Development, created the state certification system using $4 million in
state dollars. She and Laura Bush have worked on literacy projects
together. Landry’s system tracks children from preschool to kindergarten, then
uses kindergartners’ reading scores and “social skills” tests to
determine whether they were served well. Wait. Tests in kindergarten? Landry told the Dallas Morning News that students should be able to enter kindergarten knowing most of the alphabet and able “to read basic words, such as ‘cat.’ ” That is highly debatable. Certainly a preschooler should be ready to
begin digesting such matter or at least be able to comport himself in a
classroom and in a group. Reading at 4? Some can do it and thrive. For some, they just need to be children. As said, what Texas has implemented is a voluntary matter, and those
classes that have been certified might merit high marks. One shudders,
however, at mandating something like this and turning preschools into
“drill-and-kill” academies. State Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, told the Morning News that the fact that the pre-K certification program has no “force of law” limits its effectiveness in gauging preschools. That’s just what we need, more “force of law” bearing down on
child-care employees and their tiny charges — all in the name of
big-government conservatism. John Young’s column appears Thursday and Sunday. E-mail: [email protected].
Recent Comments