Literacy is much more than letters
Most assessments of early literacy include a number of scales such as: Receptive language - "Point to the picture of the tree" Expressive language - "What is happening in this picture?" Cognitive/language - "Repeat these silly words after me" Writing - "Write your name" Phonemic awareness - "Which words rhyme?" Print awareness - "Point to the words that tell the story on this page" Most do include a letter naming task but assess it better. For example, on the PIPS assessment, the first letter that a child sees is the first letter of his/her own name. They can say the letter name or the sound, either is correct. They see one letter at a time. After three incorrect answers in a row, the test stops. Too Hard and Too Easy The letter naming and sound tests are too hard for young children because they ask children to name as many as possible in one minute. They see a row of ten letters and there are ten rows. It mixes upper and lower case letters. The letter sound test includes blends. However, it is too easy because it only asks children to use their rote memory and recitation skills, which are lower order thinking skills. Describing what is happening in a picture and writing one's name are much more complex tasks, which require higher order thinking skills |
The math test is too hard
Most children have not taken a multiple choice test. before kindergarten. Figuring this out for the first time distracts children from focusing on the math problem itself, most of which are also too hard. Most children have been taught math concepts before kindergarten using actual objects that they can manipulate, which is how most young children learn best. There are no objects to manipulate on this test. The children can only look at the problem as it is written and listen to the instructions Among the problems children are asked to solve, and to select the correct answer from among the multiple choices, are addition and subtraction equations, and problems such as this: |