A reader wonders, when do we start assessing parents and caregivers?
http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/PDF/CCSS/PreK_ELA_Crosswalk.pdf
Click to access PreK_ELA_Crosswalk.pdf
Let’s not laugh too hard. I posted the links above in response to Dr. Ravitch’s post called “What are we doing to the little ones?” The links take you to draft Connecticut documents relating to CCSS for preschoolers. The introduction states that the adoption of CCSS for K-12 “has naturally led to questions regarding standards for preschool and/or prekindergarten students.” The next section talks about a work group that has been charged with the task of creating comprehensive learning standards for birth to age 5.
I personally am interested in the learning standards for infants. What do you think? Should the first assessments be at 6 weeks or 3 months? We probably need both formative and summative assessments in math and language arts. Since Connecticut is launching new teacher evaluations, we should probably apply the same standards to parents and caregivers. A full 45 percent of a parent’s score should be based on the results of these assessments. If the baby naps during an assessment, we probably should wake him/her up. I’m not quite sure how to deal with the diapering issue though. Maybe Michelle Rhee or Jeb Bush have some thoughts on this.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Testing begins immediately after birth with the Apgar test.
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I was thinking the same thing and then it occurred to me that the Apgar score (my ex was a labor and delivery nurse for a number of years) is actually a diagnostic tool for ascertaining the health of the newborn and in no way is a “test” taken by the newborn. Two different concepts.
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Good article on Diane by David Denby in the New Yorker. Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2012 14:10:30 +0000 To: rke25@hotmail.com
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Reblogged this on Thinking in the Deep End and commented:
A follow up to my blog based on Diane Ravitch’s blog ‘Virtual Insanity’. The madness escalates.
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Just wonderful ! Privatize education and destroy childhood. I only hope that there are some precocious children in Connecticut who show their mastery of Standard CT.PK.R. 22: Ask questions when things do not make sense.
I have no more to say. This is just wrong. Disturbingly wrong.
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Good Afternoon– I heard that Pearson is working on a pre-assessment that will be administered in utero. That should be a big money maker for them.
We just go from the ridiculous to the sublime.
Marge
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As another commenter pointed out, both standards and systems of assessment already occur and are widely used for children ages 0-5, and are often part of very helpful processes for improving children’s lives in that age group.
As with CCSS, as this article is no doubt attempting to address, the issue is not with standards for healthy child or educational development, but in how those standards are used and implemented. In other words, many are simply focused on the wrong fight. Why fight standards, instead of fighting inappropriate use or implementation?
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“I’m not quite sure how to deal with the diapering issue though. Maybe Michelle Rhee or Jeb Bush have some thoughts on this.”
Michelle probably recommends duct tape for diapering.
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Good Evening — All of the conversation about testing children 0-5 has me contemplating privacy issues. If a child’s test scores are being stored in a data warehouse in New York State, and nationally, are the child’s health records accessible as well?? Where do HIPPA & FERPA laws come in to play? Do these laws supersede Educational law?? It seems that Pro Bono attorneys would want to answer this. Further, if a child has an IEP and also has health issues is this accessible to corporations designing educational materials? If, I as a building principal am not privy to know whether one of my students has been diagnosed with a life threatening illness such as being HIV positive, how is that information held secure and confidential??
Marge
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I just suffered through another agonizing professional development day on the Common Core. I keep hoping this is all a bad dream, like the G.W. Bush years, and things will eventually get better. We may have a long wait.
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