I was curious as to what Canada did for standarized testing in their classrooms. While doing research, I found an interesting website with article debating whether standarized testing is right for elementary children.. Even though I do not know what kind of testing they do I found this information to be interesting since we are discussing whether standardized testing is appropriate or not.
The article talks about a teacher organization in Ontario wanting to halt standardized testing for elementary school children. They cite that standarized testing causes children to miss out on information pertaining to curriculum subjects. I actually agree with this to a certain extent, I believe that in elementary school children should focus more curriculum subjects. In my opinion, let our children learn as they grow, do not stress them out at an early age. This could have adverse effects on children they could have behavior issues or serious emotional stressors.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2010/08/16/standardized-testing.html
Amanda, I have to agree with you that testing children at such an early age is ridiculous. Pretty soon they will start testing children in the kindergarten so that they are stressed from the beginning. My daughter is in fifth grade and it stresses her out. They will have the rest of their lives to deal with stress. Why are we doing in school when they should be learning?
ReplyDeleteAmanda,
ReplyDeleteThat article does sound interesting. I wonder how early they are testing the elementary school students. Here in MD, standardized testing starts at 3rd grade. The testing is in mathematics and reading. I agree, that the testing can be very stressful, even for the teachers. We "prep" from August until a week before testing, it can be overwhelming at times.