Should We Test 4-Year-Olds?

Last fall, 450,000 children, aged 4 year olds, from every US state and nearly every locale in the nation were administered a new standardized test called the Head Start National Reporting System (NRS). But many in the field urged that if the test had to be given, only a sample of children in Head Start be tested as is done in such other national assessments as the National Assessment for Education Progress. In this article, Meisels features several key issues that stand out as psychometric problems with the NRS.