I found this article on the Washington Post about the Head Start standardized testing for 4 year olds.
Congress is looking at doing away with the NRS.
The test takes approximately 20 minutes to administer. It assesses letter recognition, vocabulary, math skills etc.
Let me just say that when I first administered the test I though this is ok but, we never saw the results. We couldn’t use it to teach. Then when we did the post test, they changed all of the vocabulary words. There was no way I could ensure my students were learning what they were expected to learn.
I like to know what my kids need to learn and then teach them, what I don’t like is when tests are used for reasons other than helping kids.
Lets hope these bills pass.