Bracken School Readiness Assessment: Validity and Concerns

posted by Karen Quinn, The Testing Mom - September 21st, 2012

The validity of the Bracken School Readiness Assessment test is reliable, in the sense that it comprises part of the indicators of whether the child can qualify for admittance to the New York City Gifted and Talented Program.  A study even concluded that this IQ readiness test given for pre-K to 2^nd grade children is considered valid in assessing the kindergarteners’ readiness to move to the first grade level.

It has been a long time practice that human intelligence be measured, thus various IQ tests have been invented. These IQ tests, stemming from the works of Alfred Binet, a French psychologist, along with Theodor Simon, were among those who were the firsts to come up with the standardized scales in measuring human intelligence.

However, as beneficial as this tool may be, one concern posed was its reliability in determining the child’s readiness for school given that school readiness may not be consistently defined all throughout. Also, it may be of dire caution for the educators not to abuse such IQ tests to retain the students in a particular grade, because of the results alone as some factors may be considered as cause for a child to attain a poor score in the Bracken School Readiness Assessment, such as distractibility, tantrums, or the overall environment at hand upon examination day.