AFT and UFTpresident Randi Weingarten issued a strong denunciation of yesterday's K-2 standardized testing proposal, saying (in part) "There's a right place and a wrong place for testing, and this is the wrong place. Testing children at such an early age is bad practice and developmentally unsound. It puts academic pressure on children...[and] the potential exists for school administrators to use it to track students. It's the wrong way to go in terms of evaluating students."

Weingarten's point on development is legitimate: A child of four has different abilities than a child of five -- and kids entering kindergarten can be as much as 11 months apart in age, provided they share a birth year. But her protests of inappropriateness ring hollow, according to DOE chief spokesman, David Cantor. A SUNY/ Charter School Institute reporton the UFT's own charter elementary school, which enrolls students in kindergarten to second grade, says "the school administers a combination of standardized, diagnostic and interim assessments as well as unit tests" to its very young students, to assess progress and group children in classes -- which sounds more than a little akin to the same tracking Weingarten paints as a negative in her statement.

As the volley of responses continues, parents may wonder if their child's school has 'volunteered' for the pilot testing program. To find out, contact your parent coordinator or school principal; strong parent support or opposition may be pivotal in a school's decision to test their youngest students -- or not.