ABSTRACT

We consider that regular standardized testing does help in childhood education, provided certain conditions are met. In this chapter we will discuss the conditions that lead to the worthwhile use of standardized assessments with children. First, though, we wish to clearly identify what does not work and thus what we believe is not good standardized assessment. Then we will review and exemplify standardized assessments that have been shown to be useful and important for children’s education. We presume standardized assessment pertains to any assessment that has gone through a systematic set of analyses and refinements that provide high levels of comfort to the user in their development, reference points for making interpretations (e.g. age, grade, or other norms), and can be used in many different situations by appropriately trained assessors.