On Sunday, Feb. 17, The New York Times published an article on aptitude tests used by the New York City Department of Education to examine children’s qualifications for elite private schools and gifted and talented programs. Some school officials are considering doing away with these tests altogether, a decision that is in every young child’s best interest.
Most students attending college these days are familiar with the agony of SATs, ACTs, Advanced Placement (AP) exams, and region-specific standardized exams for grade school students, such as the ERBs. Anyone who has been admitted to Wesleyan has had the experience of standardized test-taking and may see the reasoning behind it; on some level it certainly makes sense that higher education institutions should try to assess the strengths and abilities of their applicants. However, standardized tests also figure prominently in competitive early childhood and elementary school applications, and many parents are now spending a great deal of time and money preparing their young children for those assessments.
The New York Times article details the experience of a four-year-old girl who has studied for months in order to prepare for an aptitude test. It also talks at some length about the efforts of test preparation programs to predict newer versions of assessment and to provide a competitive advantage through constant oversight and tutoring of students.
Some people have made the argument that most standardized tests only measure a student’s ability to effectively study for and take the test, as opposed to measuring real aptitude and intelligence. Rigorous test prep centers with hefty fees and numerous textbooks seem to reinforce that point. Regardless of whether you believe that standardized testing can effectively measure important indicators, tests carry with them pressure that truly weighs on children who are told that these tests will heavily affect their future. No one should impose that kind of experience on a child as young as four years old.
I am not a cognitive psychology expert, but I do know that four-year-olds are still developing a sense of right and wrong and that they engage hands-on with the world around them through activities like finger-painting, eating glue, and experimenting with unconventional ways of eating messy food like spaghetti. Not everyone knows how to best help them navigate the world or how to prepare them for kindergarten and beyond, and every good parent worries about how to best provide for a child. Nowhere is that worry more prominent than in the effort to provide a good education. Preschools around the country are becoming more competitive as different strategies gain traction and more emphasis is placed on early childhood education, reinforcing fear among parents that their children may be missing out on key opportunities if they aren’t taught as well as other children or don’t start learning as young as other children.
President Obama recently announced his initiative to expand access to early education for every child, so that none of them would fall behind due to external factors such as socioeconomic status. While I agree that every child should get an equal opportunity to learn and explore, I don’t think that standardized testing will help fulfill that mission.
From a young age, I was immersed in initiatives that enhanced my creativity, and I am so thankful that I had access to those programs. There is more than one way to help a child grow and explore. Children deserve to have their curiosity sated, regardless of their perceived intelligence or fulfillment of age-related milestones, and there are so many ways to engage with the world. While education has its benefits, I do not think the potential benefit of sending a child to a well-reputed educational program should outweigh the benefit of sparing a child, for a few years at least, the stress that comes with test-taking and having one’s future measured by the ability to say the right answer when prompted. We owe it to young children to fix our broken educational system, and reassessing assessments seems like a good place to start.