INTRODUCTIONCurrent education policies support an overemphasis on testing and assessment at the expense of all other aspects of K-2 education year. Research shows us that standardized tests are not developmentally appropriate for young learners. And there is absolutely no evidence that standardized testing contributes to children's growth, development, learning, or daily well-being. So why is this happening? In 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act took effect, requiring that students be tested annually and that schools and teachers be held accountable for their students' progress. However, legislators and politicians are not informed about best practices in early childhood and have no respect for the fact that young children should not be assessed the same way as older students. POSITION STATEMENT I believe that standardized testing should be abolished in K-2 classrooms and replaced with assessments that serve to enhance opportunities for optimal growth, development, and learning. Young children need opportunities to participate in active, age-appropriate, play-based learning. They need to understand how things work, explore, question and have fun (Carlsson-Paige, 2008). In his book The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined, Salman Khan (2012) states: “Cultivating this sense of wonder should be the highest goal of education; failing to feed it is the central tragedy of our current system” (p. 59). Assessment of K-2 students should include carefully selected informal and formal strategies that measure specific characteristics over multiple designated time periods and in different contexts. INCLUSION OF ARGUMENT SUPPORT Standardized tests have no place in K-2 education and should not be used. to make decisions about young children...... middle of paper ......f opportunity for children to engage in activities and projects that make learning come alive” (Ravitch, p. 13). CONNECTION TO EDUCATIONAL THEORY Accepting anything for our young students, short of an engaging, developmentally appropriate curriculum and teacher-designed assessments, does a disservice to them, their parents and to their teachers. Works CitedCarlsson-Paige, Nancy (2008). “Reclaiming Play: Helping Children Learn and Thrive in School.” » Exchange.Khan, Salman (2012). The one global school: education reinvented (pp. 58-59). Grand Central Editions. Kindle edition. Miller, David M., Linn, Robert L., and Gronlund, Norman E. (2013). Measurement and evaluation in teaching, p. 17-18. Ravitch, Diane (2011). The death and life of the great American school system: How testing and choice undermine education (p. 13). Basic books. Kindle Edition.