Early Literacy Assessment in Texas: Recommendations for Change. TSRA Supports Position.

Standardized tests represent one way of obtaining assessment information. Yet in recent years educators and the public have voiced concerns about an overriding emphasis on tests and test scores. Pressure to "teach to the test" means that not enough time is spent on higher order thinking and literacy skills because minimal competencies have become the focus of the curriculum rather than one aspect of the educational program. These concerns are substantial; standardized testing of young children is an even more problematic practice. Some states are already responding to the problems associated with early childhood testing. Statewide testing of young children's reading and writing in Texas is accomplished through the first grade Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS) test, a multiple-choice, standardized instrument that assesses minimal competency in nine reading and four writing skills. A majority of Texas principals, teachers, and supervisors feel that this standardized test has had a negative effect on curriculum and teaching, and research studies and experiences in other states mirror these conclusions. Therefore, the elimination of the present first grade assessment program using TEAMS is recommended. The state should insure that a high quality, developmentally appropriate literacy assessment program be developed and implemented, with the following goals: (1) knowledge and skills assessed would reflect classic and current research on early childhood literacy learning; (2) assessment procedures would be designed to fit with early childhood literacy teaching practices; and (3) methods for gathering assessment data would include observation and performance samples of children's work under normal classroom conditions as well as test-like situations. (MM)