According to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) (2012), teachers must use their knowledge of pedagogy, standards, and best practices as it relates to assessment. They must have a deep understanding of both formative and summative assessment and know the appropriate times for each. Accomplished teachers use various forms of assessment in order to get a clear picture of the whole child. Georgia has been through numerous standards changes over the years. At one time we had adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in 2012 (Georgia Department of Education, 2019). Those were later changed to the Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE). In actuality, if you study the differences between the two different standards, there were only about seven words changed between the CCSS and the GSE. Those changes were originally made to the ELA and Math standards around 2015. Social Studies and Science updates, which are not covered by the CCSS, were made later.
Upon investigation of the standards, I am often reminded that we have “pushed down” the standards so that we now consider Kindergarten the new 1st grade. Often, in my experience, we are facing the use of inappropriate practices as we look at younger children. We do not allow them to progress at their own pace, nor do we allow them to learn appropriately through play. These used to be the norm and now those ideas have been replaced by the unrealistic push toward assessment of young children. As suggested by the NBPST, teachers are responsible for the education and assessment of young children, yet we are not considered so by administrators and stakeholders. They often tend to make decisions without the advisement of those that actually spend time in a title I, high poverty classroom where many students arrive at school without having held a pencil or owning a book. Those students are not prepared or ready to arrive at school and are often forced into emotional situations taking assessments that are not appropriate for their developmental level.
In order to address the inconsistency of the state standards and to provide a developmentally appropriate approach, I would suggest that we do several things. One suggestion is to assign leading educators that are knowledgeable about child development to a committee that assesses the standards. I would also suggest that those educators develop a set of national standards that actually allows for the implementation of the strengths identified in many state standards. Finally, I would give classroom teachers the ability and trust to judge the necessary assessments needed with their own students with a specific growth measure that would monitor the teacher’s effectiveness instead of basing that on a standard assessment that does not account for disabilities, modifications, or needed accommodations.
The questions that I would pose to guests are:
1. We are instructed to differentiate for personalized learning within the classroom. Should assessments be differentiated based on student-level or standardized?
2. If differentiated, how will we account for “mastery” of the standards that must be met in order to move to the next grade level?
3. Who should determine whether to differentiate or standardize assessments?
References
Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes. (2016). State-by-state. Retrieved from
http://ceelo.org/state-information/state-map/
Georgia Department of Education (2019). Review of common core Georgia performance standards. Retrieved from https://www.georgiastandards.org/Georgia-Standards/Pages/default.aspx
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). (2012). Early childhood
generalist standards (3rd ed.). Retrieved from http://boardcertifiedteachers.org/sites/default/files/EC-GEN.pdf
