Downward Articulation of End-of-Primary Expectations

Shepard (1994) attributes the phenomenon of "academic trickle-down," or escalated curriculum at the lower levels of schooling, to a variety of pressures on the schools to hold students to higher academic standards. To ensure that students could successfully pass the standardized tests of benchmark skills often state-mandated for the end of third or fourth grades, school district personnel articulated the expected skills downward to the grades before. The result was that, in many school districts, what had once been expectations for end of third grade were pushed down to second, those of second to first, and so on. Concurring with the views of many early childhood educators (Bredekamp & Shepard, 1989; Bredekamp & Rosegrant, 1992; National Association for the Education of Young Children & National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Department of Education 1990), Shepard (1994) notes:

"The result of these changes was an aversive learning environment inconsistent with the learning needs of young children. Developmentally inappropriate instructional practices, characterized by long periods of seatwork, high levels of stress, and a plethora of fill-in-the-blank worksheets, placed many children at risk by setting standards for attention span, social maturity, and academic productivity that could not be met by many normal 5-year-olds." (p. 207)

The same kind of harmful effects occur when typical 6- and 7-year-olds are under pressure to conform to behavioral expectations and academic objectives that are more suitable for older children. (See also abuses and misuses of tests for assessing young children and high-stakes decisions.)

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