If you believe, as I do, that standardized testing is now being misused and overused, you will be shocked to read about New York City’s latest plan to ration admission to programs for gifted 4-year-olds.
If you wanted to satirize the misuse of testing, you would come up with a plan like the one in NYC. Little children will take a test, be rank ordered, and only those who score 90% or higher are sure to win a coveted seat. Sorry, an 89% won’t make it.
When you read the editorial linked here, you may momentarily wonder if you stepped through the looking glass and into the bizarro world of testing gone mad..
Anxious parents are paying for test prep and tutoring for 3-year-olds to get ready for the big test. Children who should be playing and romping in the park are under pressure to get the right answer.
The New York Daily News usually lauds everything that comes out of the NYC DOE because of its fealty to Mayor Bloomberg, but this latest plan was too far-fetched even for the mayor’s most fervent advocates:
The News wrote:
“Preposterously, this method tries to make a superexact measurement out of completely nonscientific evaluation. Worse, consider this example:
“Sally and Billy are both 4, but Sally is one day older than Billy. They take the test on the same day. “Both get 28 questions right out of 30. Both wind up in the 99th percentile.
“But, because he is ever so slightly younger than Sally, Billy is viewed as more advanced. He gets a higher composite than Sally, and he beats her out.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Is it okay to start using the term child abuse now?
I’ll say it again, there is a difference between “gifted” and “enriched”. All the test prep and cognitive stimulation in the world will not make a child gifted. It’s just such a shame that some parents are so desperate for their child to be gifted that they will put such pressure on their child so the child “passes” for gifted. Because if they manage to get their little Einstein into such a program, the child can’t handle the demands, except by submitting to even more high pressure tutoring and skills “enrichment”. Meanwhile, an actually gifted child might not get into the program.
Of course, the real shame is that parents feel that’s what they need to do to get their kid a decent education. Every child, gifted or not, should have a decent education appropriate for their developmental level, skills, interests, etc.
Absolutely insane.
“Anxious parents are paying for test prep and tutoring for 3-year-olds to get ready for the big test.”
It seems that the parents are as addicted to testing as everyone else. I have a suggestion, rather than pay for the test prep- set aside the money for medication and therapy. You can use the money for yourself or your child or as a family. If you believe this horse mess and subject your child to this modern form of child abuse, you’ll surely need it.
My father used to tell me that it was a ‘dog eat dog world’. These folks are doing their best to fulfill that prophecy. We can do better. There are so many wonderful parents and teachers who know that play, empathy, creativity, cooperation, collaboration and moving forward together are at the heart of a good education and a good society. We must stop these anti-life forces. It’s our future that is at stake.
Good Afternoon– I think Frazier had an episode regarding their son Frederick being accepted at a Prestigious Pre-school.
SNL would have a “hay day” with this!! Imagine an episode on all of the standardized testing nonsense and teacher evaluations being based on student growth scores.
I think I’ll get to work on a skit. The setting will be a goldfish bowl — a school of fish with Pearson as JAWS. Hmmmm
Marge
Joe Renzulli, the guru of gifted Ed would be horrified! Why not try his school wide enrichment model and give enrichment to ALL students. This is sort and select at it’s ugliest. It defines 99% of young children as lacking gifts and talents.
Yet, on the other end of the spectrum we have this. Most notable, was a former NFL player who hired someone to cheat for him on his Praxis Phys Ed assessment.
Cheating scandal: Feds say teachers hired stand-in to take their certification tests
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/25/15430647-cheating-scandal-feds-say-teachers-hired-stand-in-to-take-their-certification-tests?lite
This has been in place in Chicago for years. Some regional gifted centers have kindergartens and 4 year olds test for entry. Others have a first grade entry, and another test is used for the kindergartners. And it continues for entry to an Academic Center in 7th and 8th grades, or a selective high school in 9th.
What are they thinking? They actually sit around and talk about this thinking it is a good ideas. Apparently Walcott does not have an independent thought in his brain. He serves Bloomberg first. I think they are crazy, absolutely crazy. Who would put their child in this school system? It is ABUSE!
If you are not testing, you are not teaching!
I came across this on another mail list
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20085558
Everyone is on the same race but we can’t all be top.
maybe its time to move to the burbs
Many NYC parents feel pressured to prep their kids for the G&T exam due to wait lists at zoned elementary schools. Two years ago, we didn’t prep our child for the exam and found ourselves feeling like we “failed” him when he was placed at the bottom of the wait list for our zoned elementary school. It forced us to second guess our belief that it is wrong to prep a four year old for an exam. It turned our world upside down for 6 months until he received a spot at his zoned school.
I’m sorry, maybe I just don’t understand NYC terms, but by “zoned” do you mean your local elementary school, the one you’re assigned to because of where you live? If that’s the case, my brain is just spinning. How is it possible to be excluded (or even waited listed) from your local school? Don’t local schools have to take all local kids? Or are you talking about something else?
Hi, yes I mean zoned PUBLIC school. You can decide to live in a specific public school catchment and find your child wait listed for that school. The NYC DOE then assigns your child to another school in the district and parents do not have a say which school that will be. Since kindergarten wasn’t mandatory in NY state the message was that my child didn’t really have a right to attend the school that we chose. So we learned that CHOICE in NYC refers to the ability to choose a charter or apply for a G&T program but it did not mean being to choose an alternative public school when shut out due to overcrowding.
Many parents do this crazy G&T testing to have the lower student/teacher ratios protected by law for SPED students. I’ve also seen parents go to the other extreme and insist their child be in developmental classes, when no evaluation had been conducted that that supported such a move. They just wanted the 504 modifications that allowed their child to use assistive technology (laptop) and extended time. One 9th grade mom, who insisted that her child required additional time for tests, told me flat out that she did so to ensure that her son would have the same accommodations in college. In spite of high reading comprehension scores, she demanded that he have tests read aloud. She also finagled her way to secure extended time for both in-class and out of class assignments. Kinda makes me sad for the kids who genuinely benefit from such accommodations!
The G&T testing is nothing new. It has been going on for years. i am one of the NYC DOE teachers who administers the test on weekends to the children who do not attend public school and as of last year, to all pre-k children,regardless of where they go to school or don’t go to school at all. Public school children in grades K,1, & 2 are tested in house by trained teachers.
The test is a mini SAT. It is really impossible to prep for this test except to get a child comfortable with the format of the test.
In the six years I have been testing, very few of the children are even remotely interested in taking the test. The test takes about an hour..an incredibly long time for a 4 year old to sit and be focused. Some are very nervous and cry, some are mostly disinterested and just point to any picture just to get through ti.
The city is testing for a very narrow range of skills.
This year they have changed one of the two tests administered supposedly to make it more biased free. I have my doubts.
You simply cannot test prep gifted