Ask Matt Mentor
Dear Matt, I am a first grade teacher in a Minnesota school district. We currently
have a task force looking at nationally normed assessments for kindergarten and
first grade. I am wondering if you know of assessments that other districts in Minnesota
are using with success. I have found many electronic assessments for specific lessons
on the NCTM website, but no specific information about nationally normed assessments
for these specific grade levels. All of the information I’ve found pertains to
grades 3 and above for electronic assessments. Any thoughts?
Response: Dear First Grade Teacher: I am not aware of any nationally normed assessments for kindergarten and first grade students. More importantly, if there were a national assessment available, I would not recommend its use. There are reasons why state and national assessments typically start at grade three. The purpose of a nationally normed assessment is to evaluate the system, not the students. That is, is the math instruction delivered in this school/district at kindergarten and first grade providing opportunity for students to achieve? Kindergarten and first grade students are developing the core of their mathematical understanding in ways that are very difficult to assess with a paper and pencil (or computerized) test. A. They are sorting materials, looking for similarities and differences, and building patterns. Which bottle caps have dents in them? Which have writing on them? Which are all one color? B. They are developing language skills in order to name and compare objects and sets. Which is longer? shorter? heavier? larger? etc. C. They are beginning to develop a concept for number...Which set has 4? How do you know? Is this more or less than the set that has 6? D. They are beginning to develop one-to-one correspondence by recognizing the importance of touching each object as they count. E. They are exploring and comparing shapes in their world. Which cereal boxes are rectangular prisms? Which cereal boxes are cylinders? Which blocks stack easily? Which shapes roll on the floor? F. They are beginning to develop conservation of number and create and solve simple addition and subtraction stories. G. They are beginning to read, write and build larger numbers and beginning to explore the "ten-ness" of our number system. (I know that you know these examples but I list them in case you need to have conversations with others.) A better way to assess the "system" in delivering a quality mathematics program is to compare the mathematics outcomes at each grade with other districts and to document the ways in which teachers at those grade levels assess and document student learning. While it may be helpful to be able to identify K-1 students who struggle with mathematics early in the primary grades, a better assessment tool to do this is a one-on-one interview by the teacher or a trained volunteer. There are some districts that regularly release their K-1 teachers in order to do a district-wide hands-on assessment. So, if your concern (related to standardized tests) is to assess individual students, I would recommend using some strong primary math resources to compile a manageable yet helpful set of interview questions, along with a protocol for recording student responses. After completing the interviews, holding team meetings/discussions to study this data and its implications for individual students might help you identify students who need both remedial as well as more challenging work. If your concern is more closely related to evaluating your program of instruction, I would suggest that your 3rd grade testing results are as good an indication of the foundation your primary students are achieving in your kindergarten and first grade classrooms as you can find. Studying the areas of difficulty experienced by your third grade students and attempting to backmap those areas has the greatest potential for strengthening your primary curriculum and instructional program. Matt |
Matt Mentor, a wise and experienced teacher, offers advice about teaching mathematics topics to beginning teachers. Of course, experienced teachers can join in as well. Here’s how it works: Send your answers to MattMentorMCTM@aol.com and Matt will post as many different solutions that adequately address the question as are received. Have a Question for Matt? |
