In my judgment, all children should be assessed or measured especially in a school setting. Without an assessment or some type of assessment tool, how can a childhood professional know the needs of the child or how can the needs of each child be met. Each child should be assesses at the beginning, in themiddle and the end of each school year, so that each child is able to receive the proper resources needed to meed their needs, especially if the child is in need of extra or special resources. All children should be provided the proper resources outside the classroom, jsut as well as inside the classroom. The regular teacher and the outside teacher and /or resources can and should work together to help each and every child reach his or her best potential.
I choose to look at Ugandan, due to the fact of having a child from that country in my classroom and I taught her brother two years ago. I found a study that was conducted on a cohort of 89 healthy children (45 females) aged 5 to 12 were follwed over 24 months and had cognitive tests measuring visual spatial processing memory, attention and spatial learning administered at a baseline, 6 months and 24 months. Nutritional status, child's education level, maternal education, socioeconomic status and quality of the home environment were also measured at baseline. A multivariate longitudinal model was then used to identity predictors of cognition over the 24 months.
RESULTS: A higher child's education level was assessed with better memory (p=0.03), attention (p=0.005) and spatial learning scores over the 24 months (p=0.05); higher nutrition scores predicted better visual spatial processing (p=0.0002) and spatial learning scores (p=0.0008) and a higher home environment score predicted a better memory score (p=0.03).
CONCLUSION: Cognition in Ugandan children is predicted by child's education, nutritional status and the home environment, community intervention to improve cognition may be effective if they target multiple socioeconomic variables.
References:
Bangirana,P., John C.C., Idro, R., Opoka, R.O., Byarugaba, J. et al. 2009. Socioeconomic: Predictors of Cognition in Ugandan Children. Implications for Community Interventions, PLoS ONE 4 (11): e7898. doi:10.1371/journal.pone. 0007898
Sharon,
ReplyDeleteI agree that assessment needs to be given to the students. We need to test the students. Knowledge is very important.Testing will allow you to see where the child stands academically. We as parents need to use all resources to ensure that education standards are met.
I take a bit of issue with standardized tests. I have seen were teachers and administrators underestimate how children are affected by these tests. There is also a bit of a competitive nature to them. Some children are left feeling inadequate and they have no way to recover from this. There's typically a build up about the test and then the scores come in and there is either excitement or disgust. It would be better if students had more fun during the process and less angst.
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