Entry Testing and the Overrepresentation of Romani ... - UR Research

R14PITFALLS AND BIASa child is ready for school when he or she reaches a certain age; this is the perspective on which compulsory schooling,and thus school readiness assessment at the age of compulsory schooling, is still based. In contrast, the Vygotskiansocio-historical developmental perspective is marked by a dynamic view of a child’s readiness for school, yetstill bound in a zone of proximal development. Further, environmental factors can play into a child’s readiness forschool. Snow also points out that it is somewhat limiting to consider school readiness as an issue only for childrenages three to five; he determines that there are very few studies of school readiness that address infancy andearly childhood (2006, 27). All of these issues contribute to Snow’s findings that school readiness assessment havelimited and mixed predictive validity for school success/outcomes (2006, 10).Increasingly the relationship between children and schools is moving away from a maturationist framework.Rather than place responsibility for being ready for school on the child, transitional, “interactional-relational”frameworks focus on the rights of the child and the reciprocal relationships among the child, families, the school,and the community (Bennet and Tayler 2006, 222; Snow 2006, 14; Kagan 2007, 22; High, 2008, 1009). Schoolreadiness is thus not easily defined; it is “multi-dimensional, highly variable, and culturally and contextually influencedover time” (Wesley and Buysse 2003, 353).High (2008, 1,010) identifies six misconceptions about school readiness as it is currently understood in schools:(1) Learning happens only at school.(2) Readiness is a specific condition within each child.(3) Readiness can be measured easily.(4) Readiness is mostly a function of time (maturation), and some children need a little more.(5) Children are ready to learn when they can sit quietly at a desk and listen.(6) Children who are not ready do not belong in school.Children are usually assessed for readiness in kindergarten or before entering the first year of primary school.If a child is determined not to have attained the developmental maturity necessary for school, entrance maybedelayed for a year (or more in some countries), the child may be retained for a year in the same (standard)grade, or a child may be placed in an early intervention, transition, or preparatory class, or in a special educationclass. In almost all cases, the burden of proof is on the child: The child must demonstrate her readiness to attendschool, but the school does not have to prove its readiness to accept the child and help him or her develop herskills. Herein lies the irony of school readiness testing: The very children who would benefit the most from early schoolexperiences are denied those experiences (see Shepard 1997, 85; Bennet and Tayler 2006, 13; Alcock, Holding, Mung’ala-Odera,and Newton 2008, 548; Gadeyne, Onghena, and Ghesqučre 2008, 454; and Panter and Bracken 2009, 398).