The New York Times magazine ran an interesting article Sunday about the rise of standardized testing in kindergarten, and after a little digging I learned those tests are invading early learning classrooms.

Peggy Orenstein lays out a tight argument against shoving standardized tests in front of kindergarteners.

Instead of digging in sandboxes, today’s kindergartners prepare for a life of multiple-choice boxes by plowing through standardized tests with cuddly names like Dibels (pronounced “dibbles”), a series of early-literacy measures administered to millions of kids; or toiling over reading curricula like Open Court — which features assessments every six wpoeeks.

According to “Crisis in the Kindergarten,” a report recently released by the Alliance for Childhood, a nonprofit research and advocacy group, all that testing is wasted: it neither predicts nor improves young children’s educational outcomes. More disturbing, along with other academic demands, like assigning homework to 5-year-olds, it is crowding out the one thing that truly is vital to their future success: play. – “Kindergarten Cram,” NYT Magazine, 5/3/09.

This kind of assessment of young children should not be confused with what Washington state is considering. Thrive by Five Washington, the state Department of Early Learning and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction continue to research options for a statewide kindergarten assessment process that could better inform individual student instruction upon entering kindergarten and help improve both the early learning and K-12 systems. The assessment process would not be a barrier to kindergarten. Driving this work is the desire to give all children the chance to start school ready to succeed – or get them help as soon as possible.

I checked in with Alliance for Childhood executive director Joan Almon about what’s happening, and she surprised me with worries that those tests are seeping into preschools.

Nearly 20 years ago, Almon saw Head Start classrooms use computers to teach numbers. She has also seen instructors use songs to teach kids how to darken those test bubbles. Part of the problem is mounting pressure on schools to perform under the federal  No Child Left Behind Act, which should come up for revision or reform in the next couple of years.

“They made the stakes so high,” Almon said in an interview. “The pressure to get children ready for testing has come down the ladder.”

The good news is that Almon detects a backlash among parents sick of all the tests and the disappearance of play.

“I think we are beginning to see a backlash. I can’t say it is huge yet,” Almon said. “It is just the very beginning it of it.”  

But, there are two sides to this issue. Parents may have an abstract worry about all those tests, but it is countered by anxiety about giving their baby every advantage to succeed.

I am a big supporter of the power of play in preschools and grade schools as standardized tests take up more time in those classrooms. Now one interest group is warning of a play-deficit crisis.

Tests are crowding out playtime in kindergarten and creating problems in school, U.S. News & World Report’s Nancy Shute reports this week.

But kindergarten tests are almost certainly counterproductive, according to a new report from the Alliance for Childhood, an advocacy group in College Park, Md., called "Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School." Pushing children to perform at a level they aren't old enough to handle increases behavior problems and failure rates and takes away from a focus on the importance of play, which is what 5-year-olds really should be doing. – On Parenting, U.S. News & World Report, 4/7/09.

These days benefits of play are increasingly well-documented, even as the amount of playtime shrinks. Kids lost roughly eight hours of play — an entire workday — and 12 hours of basic outdoor and free time over the last 20 years, David Elkind writes in The Power of Play: How Spontaneous, Imaginative Activities Lead to Happier, Healthier Children.

What I liked about Shute’s story was that it went beyond the latest report and offered parents a lot of tips, such as: 

• Tell your child that tests do not measure how smart, able, or good a person is. 
• Consider requesting that your kindergartner not be tested.

The power of play isn’t crystal clear, and the Alliance for Childhood clearly has an agenda to encourage more playtime. Over at The Early Ed Watch Blog Lisa Guernsey points out we need more research on the benefits of playtime. (Guernsey’s post offers an excellent review of current writing and research on play and school, while also promising to track the issue in the coming months.

Where does the play debate fit in the broader dialogue on early learning. While advocates, teachers and academics are talking about it, when will it rise to the level of serious policy debate? Perhaps when Congress and the Obama administration tackle the No Child Left Behind Act.

Any thoughts?