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One voice. Yours. While one letter, one email, or one vote can feel insignificant, often, that is exactly where real and lasting change begins. 

Computer-based, standardized testing in literacy and math, as required by the state of Arkansas, does not benefit students or teachers. This is one policy that needs to be eliminated and replaced with policies that better reflect how kindergarten students learn and show mastery.

One voice.  Yours.  You can be One who speaks on behalf of these young children.

Your local representative and their contact information are found at the following website - https://portal.arkansas.gov/my-elected-officials.

The list of legislators on the House Education Committee can be found at- https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/Committees/Detail?code=810&ddBienniumSession=2021%2F2022F

The list of legislators on the Senate Education Committee can be found at- https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/Committees/Detail?code=410&ddBienniumSession=2021%2F2022F

#ChangeKinderTesting

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2 hours a week is the average amount of time that Kindergarten teachers spend each week on activities directly related to test preparation.

Schools and districts receive annual report cards from the state that grade them in various areas, including standardized test scores. This report card pressures administrators to push teachers to increase student test performance. Because of this pressure to perform on tests that are not natural or developmentally appropriate for 5 and 6-year-olds, time has to be set aside during the school day to teach students how to perform on these computer-based, standardized tests. Studies show that Kindergarten teachers spend 20-30 minutes daily on activities designed to prepare students to take these tests (Miller 2009). The goal of this instruction is not student learning but merely increasing test performance.

There are many skills in many areas (problem-solving, visual thinking, hand-eye coordination, cooperation, community awareness, and many more) that Kindergarten students need to develop a solid foundation, not only for their future education but also for life. How to perform better on a computer-based, standardized test is not one of these skills.

Crisis in the Kindergarten

#ChangeKinderTesting

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 3 - Three

The state of Arkansas requires that Kindergarten students take a computer-based, standardized test 3 times during the year. The testing windows are in the fall, winter, and spring. In their recently updated policy manual, the National Association for the Education of Young Children specifically calls out using unfamiliar assessment tasks administered in unfamiliar settings as practices to avoid when assessing Kindergartners (NAEYC 2022 p.175). Yet, by following the state's testing windows, the first time Kindergarteners take this test is within the first few weeks of the school year. These young students are in a new building, surrounded by new kids, and learning to trust new adults.  For some, this is their first experience schooling outside their home. This is the very definition of an unfamiliar setting!

Though many students have some experience with various technologies, many 5-year-olds need more practice using a computer with a touchpad or a mouse before using it in an assessment. Few, if any, incoming Kindergarteners have experience with taking a test. While computer-based assessments are designed to play like a game, many young students still need to gain the skills and experience necessary to perform well on an unfamiliar assessment task such as this. Unfortunately, this renders the results nearly useless to teachers. 

#ChangeKinderTesting

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The State of Arkansas gives school districts 4 standardized tests to choose from to use with Kindergarteners. Unfortunately, none of these tests reflect how kindergarten-age students learn and demonstrate mastery. One problem is that they are all computer-based. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting daily screen time for 5-year-olds (AAP 2016), but counterintuitively, teachers are tasked with preparing students for computer-based, standardized tests. In fact, the National Association for the Education of Young Children cautions explicitly against using "computer-based assessment methods as the main source of information" about kindergarten students' learning (NAEYC, 2022, p. 175)

AAP - Media and Young Minds

#ChangeKinderTesting

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In Arkansas, students must be 5 on or before August 1st to start Kindergarten.  That means many Kindergarteners are only 5 years old when they take the state-required computer-based, standardized tests. This kind of test is not developmentally appropriate, nor are the results reliably accurate in kids this young.  Here are 5 facts on the matter -

* Standardized test results only have a 50% chance of being accurate at this age (Miller, 2009), making the data ineffective for guiding instruction.

Crisis in the Kindergarten

*In Finland (where formal assessments aren't given until age 7), 100% of 2nd and 3rd-grade students achieve at least a minimum proficiency in reading

International Quality of Education Data

*In the US (where standardized testing begins at age 5), only 35% of 4th-grade students performed at or above the Proficient level in reading

National Center for Education Statistics

*Learning for children this age is best done through hands-on interactions and asking a lot of questions (Anthony, 2021)

Academic Learning in 3-5 Year Olds

* Recognizing the importance of social development for students at this age, the NAEYC recommends against "relying only on assessments of children working by themselves" (NAEYC, 2022, p.176)

NAEYC Developmentally Appropriate Practice

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There are six essential areas of learning that are not tested in Kindergarten. That means that only 25% of the learning that students do is tested!  This is one of the pitfalls the National Association for the Education of Young Children warns against in their book on Developmentally Appropriate Practice for early educators. Listed under assessment "practices to avoid," the NAEYC DAP includes "Assessing only one or two areas of a child's development" and "Overlooking important areas...such as social and emotional development" (NAEYC, 2022, p. 166)

The Arkansas Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recognizes the importance of science, social studies, art, music, health/PE, and social and emotional skills. The state has developed a curriculum of standards to be taught in Kindergarten in each of these areas. Unfortunately, research shows that when certain skills and content are not assessed, those skills and content risk being excluded from or only minimally included in the instructional setting (Vargason 2019). And when it comes to students demonstrating growth and mastery, only math and literacy are assessed, which gives an unclear and incomplete picture of the learning happening in schools/classrooms and for students. Often a young student is still mastering the social, emotional, and fine motor skills in Kindergarten that will allow him to successfully focus on gaining literacy skills in first grade. Unfortunately, computer-based, standardized tests do not allow students and teachers to demonstrate that growth.

NAEYC DAP

Vargason

#ChangeKinderTesting

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7 - Seven

Many students are 7 years old before they are ready for direct, formal reading instruction and assessment. Given the age cut-off date of August 1, in Arkansas, most students reach this age sometime during their first-grade year. "Given the range within which children typically master reading, even with exposure to print-rich environments and good teaching, a developmentally appropriate expectation is for most children to achieve beginning conventional reading (also called early reading) by age seven" (NAEYC 1998 p.8). The picture below shows the physical difference between the hands of a typical 4 to 5-year-old and a typical seven-year-old. Too often, young students are not physically able to master the literacy skills expected of them in Kindergarten. 

In early years, the National Association for the Education of Young Children recommends immersing students in a literacy-rich environment and "capitalizing on the active and social nature of children’s learning, early instruction must provide rich demonstrations, interactions, and models of literacy in the course of activities that make sense to young children" (NAEYC 1998 p.6) Many five and six-year-olds are not developmentally ready for direct literacy instruction, nor are they able to perform to a level of mastery on standardized, computerized literacy assessments.

NAEYC Position Statement

#ChangeKinderTesting