Daddy Duty: Testing in VPK shows major learning goals reached with hard work from everyone

Tim Walters
Florida Today
Isabella couldn't resist jumping into the empty laundry basket on a recent morning.

I’m not the biggest fan of standardized tests.

I’ve always held the belief teachers should use their talents to teach students rather than teaching to a test.

However, I also see the merit in certain standardized tests.

This became evident because of what we’ve gone through with Isabella this past year in VPK.

When the school year started, Isabella had to take a test that consisted of four categories: Print knowledge, phonologic awareness, oral language/vocabulary and mathematics.

Tim Walters, USA TODAY NETWORK-FLORIDA

When we got the results back, they weren’t good. Isabella was below expectations in all but print knowledge.

At the time, her communication and speaking skills were not greatly developed and it led me to wonder if being one of the younger kids in her class could be the problem.

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After all, when it comes to 4-year-olds, a difference of three months can make all the difference in the world.

After her initial test, we were advised to have Isabella meet with a specialist with Brevard Public Schools.

They didn’t rule out a learning disability, but they also gave us plenty of things to work on before they would make a determination.

After Christmas, Isabella took another test.

This time, she had nudged up a second category — math — to meeting expectations, but she was still lagging in two areas: phonologic awareness and oral language/vocabulary.

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We once again met with the specialist from BPS, and she seemed pretty pleased with the progress but said Isabella would need to improve a lot more to be able to move on to kindergarten.

As we always do, my wife and I worked with Isabella to help her improve on these areas.

Truth be told, these are tricky subjects for a 4-year-old. For instance, they might have four pictures, and the questions might be, which one DOES NOT have a red flower, or something like that. Isabella would point to one WITH a red flower, and hence she’d get the question wrong.

My wife would go through picture books and ask questions that made Isabella learn how to comprehend more about what she was seeing.

It must have worked.

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We got the results back from her third and final test recently, and she met expectations in phonologic awareness and oral language/vocabulary, and she exceeded expectations in math and print knowledge.

For phonological awareness, she improved from getting only one question correct to getting 11 of 14. Had she gotten 12 right, she would have exceeded expectations.

For oral language vocabulary, she got 18 of 23 correct.

For print knowledge, she was a perfect 12-for-12 and for math, she got 15 of 18.

Overall, she got 56 of 67 questions correct, which would amount to an 84 percent.

When I saw those test results, I wanted to break dance.

Parents never want to see their kids struggle, and I was worried she might have a hard time in kindergarten this fall.

Now, I feel she has the tools to do as well as any kid in the class.

I’ll chalk up Isabella’s improvement to two things: an amazing VPK teacher and a family that has worked to help her improve on what she was struggling with.

If you know someone whose child has struggled and they might not want to seek help, encourage them to.

I wasn’t keen on seeing a specialist, but I’m glad we did. Once I got over my own sense of self-pride, I saw what a good thing it was for her.

Remember, being a parent isn’t what’s best for you, it’s what’s best for your child.

In that sense, I went from being below expectations to at least meeting expectations. Maybe someday I’ll exceed expectations, just like Isabella.

Walters has written the parenting column "Daddy Duty" since May 22, 2014. His final column will run June 6, 2019. Contact him at twalters@floridatoday.com.

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