Macaroni Necklaces and Scantrons: Modern Day Kindergarten

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Macaroni Necklaces and Scantrons: Modern Day Kindergarten Jane slowly walks into her kindergarten classroom. She nervously sits down at the large round table and waits for her teacher to join her. This was it, this was assessment day. She had heard the term “assessment” floating around between the teachers in the hallway and between the older members of her family. Over the first half hour, Jane follows her teacher’s instructions for various activities that involve such skills as counting numbers, identifying colors, and recognizing patterns. Overall, her mastery of the skills assessed is above average. For the second half hour, Jane is instructed to sit at the computer. She is told to put on the headphones and use the mouse to pick the correct answer. Jane grabs the mouse, and the testing begins. A voice comes on and reads the story aloud, because Jane is a non-reader. As soon as the short story has been read, the screen scrolls and the voice asks a question about the story. The possible answers flash on the screen, but Jane is confused. She has forgotten the story. She tries to ask for help, but the teacher declines because of the rules. Jane quickly clicks all over the screen and then puts her head down. After 30 minutes, the computer test ends, and Jane is frustrated and sad. A month passes by, and then her parents are confronted with Jane’s assessment scores at parent-teacher conferences. For the one-on-one portion of the assessment, Jane scored an “above standard” score, but for the computer portion of the assessment, Jane scored a “below standard” score. These assessment scores have now placed Jane in a group considered high risk, and her parents are being counseled about special education options. A standardized test is "any test that's administered, scored, and interpreted in a standard, predetermined manner." (ProCon.org 2013) These tests are

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