Blog Assignment  Week 6

I think that once children get to public school they start "Teaching to the test" from the first week teachers have the agenda to meet their goals and with the ramifications for the school and the teachers if the right scores are not earned. I have been in one of our local Kindergarten classes during my undergraduate studies and noticed her using several different teaching styles trying to reach all the children in her class. I remember hearing her stress that the children needed to get serious about things and learn whatever was on the agenda because when they moved across the hall to the First Grade it was going to be tough.
'Being in Early Childhood we are not yet having to be that stressed about what the child "has" to know, we teach them through their play and other teachable moments. But just this past year I have seen more stressed placed on my non-state funded pre-k teachers to start incorporating some of the things that typically have no place in Early Childhood programs, such as dittos and worksheets.
  I understand though that once they get to elementary that needs to change and the progress of the children need to be measured but  I think that they should not only measure a child's levels by the test, I think that since we all have different learning styles that they should look at different ways to judge the child's level of competence.

 

I picked South Africa since at this moment everyone is remembering Mandela. RIP

South Africa does assessments for grades 1st through 6th and then in the 9th. and the Southern and eastern African Consortium is in charge of monitoring educational quality in 15 countries. The assessments are like our E.O.G's here in North Carolina in that they are testing language and math competences. From these scores goals for achievement are set and they are NOT used for progression or promotion to the next grade they are used to give the children the extra help. Teachers are able to use these results to adjust their lesson plans accordingly.



Retrieved from
http://www.education.gov.za/Curriculum/AnnualNationalAssessment/tabid/424/Default.aspx on December 6th 2013