Defending the Early Years has been collecting stories from early childhood professionals from across the nation. These “Voices from the Field” are shared here to help illustrate the negative impact current policies are having on quality education for young children.

For example, one public school teacher told us recently,

“I am heartbroken to see what is happening to myself and many of my colleagues here in NYC. I am being forced to shove academics down the throats of 4,5 and 6 year old children. They have no recess or gym. I used to be proud of my teaching – now I feel that I am being forced to do wrong by my students every day… After 21 years of teaching in Early Childhood all I can say is I am deeply sad.”

We asked early childhood professionals whether or not the tests they are required to give are appropriate for the developmental level of their children. Many teachers responded, “No” and then told us why…

Here is what a first grade teacher from California told us:

“Our district is now requiring us to give first grade students what they call a ‘benchmark’ test three times per year. This ‘benchmark’ is actually a summative evaluation. It is the same test all three times. We are supposed to administer all of the pages at the close of each semester. This is in addition to the testing we are required to do to report to the parents on the ‘standards-based’ report cards. All in all testing takes at least a month. It must be administered over a period of time, due to the sheer number of tests a child must complete one-on-one with an adult. Since this is the Summative Test, here is just one example from my classroom: Children are asked to read end of the year ‘grade-level’ texts in November. Each of the two reading selections has 5 multiple-choice questions attached to it, supposedly covering the California Content Standards in Comprehension. One of my kids scored proficient, yet did not know letter sounds or sight words. Lucky student, I’d say! That’s one possible outcome of this type of testing. A handful of kids could read this test, and felt ok about it. These kids were, nonetheless, quite nervous because they figured out it was a test. They knew they were expected to ‘perform’. The majority of kids could not read it but they learned that if you don’t understand a test, just fill in a bubble so you might score proficient. This type of testing shows the children that we don’t value or respect their learning needs or their intelligence. Not only is the test inappropriate, but in administering the test, we are no longer meeting their needs for stimulation and guided learning throughout the school day. We are just testing. And testing. And testing.”

We heard from many other teachers as well…

“Children under the age of 8 are not reliable test takers.  Their development is uneven and their response to and understanding of the testing expectations are quite variable from child to child, day to day and during the day.  Tests do not adequately evaluate learning styles, social and emotional development, physical development, etc.  They narrow the curriculum to primarily literacy (mostly reading in the early years) and math.”

“A one size fits all model is not appropriate for a classroom of 26 kids.  There are WAY too many diverse learners and abilities to just present that type of model.”

“We do not use curriculum or tests in our center, but I believe that testing of young children is totally inappropriate. Because of our philosophy we will not be a part of QRIS. This means that we will never take state of federal money which will limit our ability to offer vouchers.  Fortunately we are a laboratory school, a part of the psychology department in a small liberal arts college, so we do not have to abide by all of the standards that are being proposed.  We try to have parents understand our reasons for not becoming accredited and we may lose some children as a result, but we strongly believe that what is happening to children today is wrong. Children should be playing and developing social skills, not being tested or pressured to learn to read or do form math at the preschool level.”

“If developmental norms state that a child is not expected to have a certain ability and we as educators are forcing them to learn things they are not ready for, it causes frustration, tuning out and at times behavioral issues for children when they become frustrated attempting to perform or understand things that are too high for them and things that science states they are not developmentally ready to perform in the first place. They grow to dislike school from day one!   Would you as a first time skier go up on the gondola to the top of the mountain and be expected to ski down a black diamond ski slope and then expect to enjoy skiing or would you be frustrated? No you have to learn and master the building blocks and have the foundation skills that are appropriate for your level. Children need to learn to sit and attend first …and they won’t be interested in doing that skill if the demand is over their expected developmental ability level.”

“Children at this age should not be ‘tested’, as it immediately limits their thinking.  It scares them and makes them think there is only one right answer.  It does not account for where they are developmentally OR where they are THAT day.  Children should be encouraged to be creative and dream, no matter how wild the idea appears to adults.  We should follow them instead of the other way round.”

“I believe the tests are given too often and too much emphasis is given to them. I would prefer that more emphasis be place on teachers actually assessing the learning of their own students and adjusting instruction accordingly, rather than having all the students in the school go through 1 minute speed screenings with other adults and then having the results compiled, posted and compared with other teachers’ scores. Often, there is a cut-off score that supposedly indicates the need for RTI in some students. I don’t always agree with this.”

“I don’t believe standardized tests are a good way to measure children’s learning at this age.  There are bursts of learning that occur as a concept is mastered. It happens at the child’s pace, not the teachers pace. This is not fair of young children.”

“I teach preschool special education.  I understand the need to collect data, and the value in determining each child’s abilities and skill levels.  The tests were normed on ‘typical’ population, and always make my students appear below/behind/etc.  Each child has strengths and parents need to know what their child’s strengths are, as well as the areas in need of improvement.  Usually when we review evaluations it is a long list of ‘your child could not_____’ .”

“Many questions on the test can be confusing to young children and mandate that only one answer is acceptable.  It forces the teachers to make sure that the children know very specific words and how to answer questions.  I don’t believe that we should be so narrow minded with our children.”

“Oh…let me count the ways….!!    Children learn best by being actively involved in their learning. Testing requires them to sit and use paper and pencil. These children do not yet completely understand the symbolism of letters yet and NEED to PLAY so they can use their imaginations to pretend that concrete objects represent their ideas first and then when they are ready, they can document their ideas first with drawings and then with letters and writing. There is a natural learning process which standardized testing does not even recognize or respect.”

“A child having an ‘off’ day, lack of interest, or not able to remain engaged in the test will give a false assessment.  Observation and anecdotal records of children’s play provides a much better understanding of the child’s developmental skills.”

“Some of the tests are end of level tests given all year long.  Students are repeatedly exposed to concepts they haven’t been taught yet.  This creates a sense of failure for them…they learn to just guess because they don’t know what they haven’t been taught.    The language on many tests is too difficult for students of poverty and English Language Learners.  I would say 90% of the time if I was allowed to rephrase the question in simpler English the students would get the answer correct.  But I’m not allowed to do that.  This is a form of discrimination against these groups of students–particularly in math where language shouldn’t have much if anything to do with their scores.”

“The Kindergarten Readiness Screening has too many pictures on the page (with different colored jpeg images, rather than black and white outline drawings like on the standardized Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test). The pictures are too small, and it’s too distracting to have so many on each page. I believe the formatting of the assessment is not accurately assessing children’s knowledge of the language.”

“The tests are ‘sit and get’ assessments.  They are not evidence of what the children can do in their natural environment, are not available to be used for planning, and, even though we try to avoid it, provide focus for classroom instruction.  It is not meaningful to the children nor do the tests represent their growth.”

“The tests gather data about discrete skills – research shows that early proficiency in these skills does not indicate later proficiency or even impart ongoing proficiency.”

“They are being asked to name letters and the corresponding sounds before they have had time to be instructed.   They are required to sound out words and recognize sight words before most are ready. They must periodically reach a certain pre-determined reading level no matter what their individual abilities are.”

“Timed tests that have a child read letters and words that they have not been taught yet sets them up to feel like a failure at the very FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL!!!!! Then they are placed into groups where scripted lessons are given, every single day in the most repetitious and boring of circumstances. It’s horrifying and demeaning to children and teachers. Math tests that are simply ridiculous and made up by administrators that don’t work or know young children…just to get scores…”

“The children I work with are 3,4 and 5 years old. They don’t understand. Many times when saying a word and having a child point to a given picture out of a grouping of four, the child finds a different picture more interesting and wants to talk about it. They then point to that picture (the wrong one). I have to mark down that they got it wrong, but yet I know, from dealing with the child, that the child knows the word but didn’t want to point to it.”

“The corporations who created those tests know nothing about E.C. or learning.”

“Young children need more attention, not less.  They need adults to listen to what they have to say, to hear what’s going on in their lives, to care.  When the test proctor is more concerned about completing the questions which all come from sources unknown, sources claiming to be about the best interests of children who they don’t know, it sends the message that tests are more important than relationships and that’s a lie.  Testing sends the message that choosing the one right answer out of three or four possibilities is more important that asking questions oneself, exploring ideas, developing skills that are meaningful now, and being creative.”

In many instances, experienced teachers are choosing to leave the field rather than participate in harmful practices. This story from a former Detroit public school teacher helps to illustrate why:

“Young children need more attention, not less. They need adults to listen to what they have to say, to hear what’s going on in their lives, to care. When the test proctor is more concerned about completing the questions which all come from sources unknown, sources claiming to be about the best interests of children who they don’t know, it sends the message that tests are more important than relationships and that’s a lie. Testing sends the message that choosing the one right answer out of three or four possibilities is more important that asking questions oneself, exploring ideas, developing skills that are meaningful now, and being creative. I used to teach bilingual kindergarten in Detroit Public Schools, Michigan, at Harms Elementary. Unfortunately, because Detroit is completely broke, it has been prey to terrible cronyism, corruption, and education ‘deforms’ such as closing scores of low-scoring schools, either abandoning them or turning them into charters. On every street there are hulks of burned out houses, vacant lots, and disinvestment. At every freeway corner are people with signs begging for help. In this environment, test scores literally translate to life or death for the foundation of the communities: the traditional neighborhood school, with all that implies for students and staff.”

She goes on to say:

“My education and experience in early childhood and bilingual education tells me it’s all wrong and even harmful in the long run. So, while the school where I taught since January 2005 has high ratings from high test scores, I chose not to reapply for my job there.”

Stay tuned to hear from other early childhood professionals who are on the front lines – working everyday to support the rights and needs of young children. We will be adding more voices soon…