Studer Community Institute

Guest commentary: The Over-Testing of 4-year-olds

March 28, 2015
/ Kathleen Reynolds
/ government

The State Board, the Governor and the legislature have an opportunity to right a wrong with Florida’s Voluntary Prekindergarten program. This program provides all 4-year-olds with 540 hours of preschool before kindergarten for the school year program, or 300 hours for the summer program. While we have heard concern and proposals from leadership regarding the K-12 program, no proposals address the over-testing in the VPK world. Currently, upon entry into VPK, 4-year-olds take a sit down, one on one test, where a teacher asks questions and the child responds or points to a correct answer. Each child is tested individually, and teachers report this takes about 20 minutes per child, resulting in lost instructional time. This same thing is repeated at the end of the program, and the state recommends that it be done also in the middle of VPK. The state’s Office of Early Learning is planning to add a high quality beginning and ending observational assessment where teachers determine development by studying children engaged in real-world activities. Within 30 days of entering kindergarten, children are given yet another version of that one-on-one test. This test is called the FAIR; it is what led kindergarten teachers across the state to revolt last fall, contributing to the growing alarm about over-testing. FAIR results are then mixed with other results, and the VPK program that the child attended months before is rated as an acceptable program if 70 percent of their students are “ready for kindergarten” or as a program “on probation” because less than 70 percent are “ready.” A program on probation can eventually be denied the right to offer VPK for four years, increasing the chances of going out of business. Department of Education leadership contends that regardless of what life a child has led up until 4 and entry into a VPK program, 540 or 300 hours of instruction will fix it and make that child “ready for kindergarten.” A few minutes of reflection should convince the rational that this is irrational. We have got to stop making believe that we can “fix” a child’s life, teach a child English, or address a child’s as yet undiagnosed special need in a few hundred hours. The VPK program represents all that is the best in Florida citizens and leadership’s aspirations to do the right thing. Here is how the Board, the Commissioner, the Governor and the legislature can enhance this program. 1) Remove the irrational connection between “kindergarten readiness” and the VPK program. 2) Focus on growth, and use only the high quality, observational assessment currently planned for that teachers use at the beginning and end of VPK. This does not require the direct questioning of children who may never have been in preschool before. It allows teachers to record things like participation in conversations, letters recognized, knowledge of numbers, etc., simply by informed, professional “kid” watching. 3) Insure that the assessment used addresses all of Florida’s standards for 4-year-olds, not just a select few. Also insure that the assessment used meets all of the standard criteria required for endorsement by recognized professional groups. 4) Insure that VPK teachers are “reliable” when they score children’s developmental levels. That is, put in place one of the good options that exists to give the taxpaying public confidence that the scores assigned are correct. 5) Focus on reporting to the public and state leadership “growth” scores — where were children when they entered and where they were when they left. Determine which programs serve specific populations better than others and what the reasons are. The public needs to understand that the myth of “kindergarten readiness” for almost all children has survived by keeping its definition at a very low level. “Kindergarten readiness” means only that there is a good chance (68 percent probability) that in first grade a child might perform at or above the 40^th percentile. For years I have asked “Since when did the 40^th percentile represent passing?” The response has been that the rate cannot be raised because too many children would be deemed “not ready for kindergarten.” It’s time for that charade to stop. State leadership now has a significant opportunity to enhance the quality of what is happening in our VPK programs by improving the assessments used and the information reported to the public. Yes, all of the discussion about K-12 over-testing is applauded, but please pay attention to our 4-year-olds and to their teachers, some of whom are now penalized for taking on the causes of our neediest and most vulnerable. Kathleen Reynolds of Marco Island, has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from New York University and a Ph.D. in Reading, Language and Cognition from Hofstra University. She has served in many roles in prek to graduate school education, as classroom teacher, university instructor and superintendent of schools in Massachusetts. Reynolds recently retired as CEO of the Early Learning Coalition of Southwest Florida, and she holds strong beliefs about the relationship between quality education and our state and national economies. She may be reached at [email protected]

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Guest commentary: The Over-Testing of 4-year-olds

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