Governor Backs Out of Deal to Not Test 7 Year Olds in California

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Jackie Goldberg
Teacher
Former Member of the California Assembly

NO 2nd Grade Testing!

A couple of years back, while I was Chair of the Assembly Education Committee, we made a deal with the Governor. And now, he wants to back out of it! I guess that should come as no surprise, since he seems to only make deals for a short term gain, and chooses not to follow through with the parts he doesn't like.

The deal was that the budget would pass and with it would be a commitment that California would end testing seven year olds with high stakes, standardized tests.

Why did the legislative majority require California to get out of the business of "testing" seven year olds? Was it because we don't want them to learn? Is it because we don't think they can learn? Or is it that we just don't want to hold teachers and schools "accountable"?
Well, actually, it is not for any of those alleged reasons. We, as a legislative body, decided that labeling very young children as "failures" was probably not going to help them love learning, and was indeed cruel and unusual punishment.

Those who understand child development know that there are individual developmental issues for children under age 9. What that means is that if a child is not doing well on a particular skill or test, until about nine years of age, there are physiological developments that occur at different times for different children. You know this already if you are a parent. One child holds a pencil and draws well at an earlier age than another child. One child learns to roller skate before another child of the same age. We don't call the later developing child a "failure" or "far below basic" as we so nicely put it in California.

But even if we don't care about developmental issues, we shouldn't test seven year olds because they are too young and immature to deal with this pressure. I saw one 2nd grade boy curl up on the floor under his desk, and just stay there until the testing was over. Another, high achieving girl in the same class "wet herself" and had to go to the nurse's office to change clothes because, as the teacher put it, the girl "knew what was at stake." Imagine a seven year old girl having to worry about "what is at stake"!