The hardest thing when assessing children is insuring that you have a true an accurate representation of the child during the assessment.  All children react differently to different environments.  We have many children in our program that could not be assessed in an office setting and had to have environment observing to take place so that the assessor could see the child in a routine setting.  When you look at the school system and the End of Grade testing that they do in my community, it is amazing that any child comes out with a score that accurately represents what the child has retained throughout the school year.  The school system spends the last month of school preparing the students to take these tests and all but scares them to death.  The children are instilled with fear of failing and not being promoted to the next grade. They have a fear they will get in trouble by their parents. They also have a fear that their peers will see that they failed and must retake the test and thus ridiculed for their test scores.  I know that the school system has in place if a child fails that school staff looks at the child’s attendance, final grades during each grading period, and finally if there were any mitigating circumstance that impaired the child’s ability to take the test.  For example were their interruptions? Was the child sick on the day of testing?  Did the student have an undiagnosed special learning ability?  Did the child not go to bed on time or had a late family emergency?  All of these things will contribute to a child’s test taking ability.  Testing would be much more accurate and useful if the test not only examined the child’s intellectual ability, but also their, emotional, cognitive and physical abilities.  The only time that a school system evaluates the “whole” child in when they want them assessed by a physiological professional.   

 Communities worldwide would function more efficiently if we judged people based on their abilities not their credentials.  As an administrator finding the right person for the right job has become increasingly more difficult, because the right person for the job may lack the resources to have the credentials to be qualified.  Communities around the globe struggle with these issues.  Internationally the assessing of children can vary greatly.  According to the World Bank Papers in Sub-Saharan Africa, students are assessed in similar type settings as American students (Group, 2012).  The major difference is that the children that are fortunate enough to attending school in these areas is that the students have much higher stakes.  If children cannot perform and pass the assessments they are unable to continue their education (Group, 2012). They are deemed not intelligent enough to represent the school; unlike US student’s future is simply postponed if the assessment is failed. In SSA a student fails the assessments they are deprived from any further education. 

In retrospect, looking at the “whole” picture children of the United States does have more opportunity for education. It is most common that all children will face stress of the assessment period and the results may vary based on the stressor the child is facing.  The only thing as educators we can push for is that assessments will also reveal a wider range of skills and abilities so that children are challenged in all areas of consideration, including social, cognitive, and physical areas of development. Hopefully In the future we will have children that are educated as well as well- rounded individuals.

Resources

Group, W. B. (2012, 6 4). Creating a National Conversation through Large-Scale Learning Assessments.