Test prep reaches the little ones:
Steve Gold and his son Austin studied an hour every school night for weeks to prepare for the big test. It wasn't a final exam or an SAT.
Austin is a fourth grader in Rockland County. They studied for the New York state assessment test on English Language Arts given this week.
"It was a lot of work. It wasn't easy," Steve Gold said. "But I'm glad that the school put the emphasis on it because I do believe it's going to make test taking easier as they get older."
Welcome to test prep - grade school style.
You can tell this article isn't appearing in the New York Times; if Winerip were reporting this, there would have been tears aplenty by this point in the article. The NY Newsday, however, sticks to the facts:
As standardized tests proliferate at the lower grades, study guides and programs have filled a growing market...The market is expected to expand when standardized tests for grade schoolers become the rule this fall under federal No Child Left Behind legislation...
New York school students take assessment tests beginning in fourth grade math and English Language Arts. In New York, assessments also help schools identify problem areas of specific students and in instruction, though they are not used to decide whether a student advances or is held back.
So is test prep at home even needed?
Good question. I say yes. The parents need reassurance, and the kids need practice. Good test prep books will be able to fill both sets of needs. The critics, of course, say that the test prep must inevitably be coming at the expense of "education," as though learning to read and learning how to take a reading test cannot possibly cover the same constructs.
Some parents won't buy the books, because they'll see their kids don't need them. But these books could be a boon to a parent who is unfamiliar with the tests and/or believes their child needs extra help.
Posted by kswygert at February 6, 2005 05:19 PM