From elementary school, middle school, high school, and even when I finished college, I have dislike, what I really want to say is hate standardize testing.  I am totally against standardize testing.  From elementary to college I have never done well on standardize testing.  I fear these type of test.  I never scored well on these type of test.  It takes me several times to pass them.  It controls your whole day worrying about whether if you did well on the test or not.  I personally think kids nor adult should be measured in what they know on these test.  I believe that you can use observation to get what you need to know.  A child or adult could be having a bad day and don't score will on the test.  Also, some kids don't take the test seriously enough and will mark any letter that he or she think might be right.  However, I personally think these types of test are bias. 

Waldorf  Education:  The first Waldorf school was founded in 1919 to serve the children of employees at the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factoryin Stuttgart, Germany.

Waldorf education (also known as Steiner education) is a humanistic approach to pedagogy based on the educational philosophy of the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy. Learning is interdisciplinary, integrating practical, artistic, and conceptual elements. The approach emphasizes the role of the imagination in learning, developing thinking that includes a creative as well as an analytic component.  The educational philosophy's overarching goals are to provide young people the basis on which to develop into free, morally responsible and integrated individuals, and to help every child fulfill his or her unique destiny, the existence of which anthroposophy posits.  Schools and teachers are given considerable freedom to define curricula within collegial structures.

Pedagogy and theory of child development

The structure of the education follows Steiner's theories of child development, which describe three major developmental stages of childhood, each having its own learning requirements, as well as a number of sub-stages. These stages are broadly similar to those described by Piaget.

·        In early childhood learning is largely experiential, imitative and sensory-based. The education emphasizes learning through practical activities.

·        During the Elementary school years (age 7–14), learning is artistic and imaginative, and is guided and stimulated by the creative authority of teachers. In these years, the approach emphasizes developing children's emotional life and artistic expression across a wide variety of performing and visual arts.

·        During adolescence, to meet the developing capacity for abstract thought and conceptual judgment the emphasis is on developing intellectual understanding and ethical ideals such as social responsibility.

Waldorf education realizes an unusually and perhaps uniquely "complete articulation of an evolutionary developmental K-12 curriculum and creative teaching methodology." its underlying principles continue a pedagogical tradition initiated by Comenius, Pestalozzi, and Herder Its methodology encourages collaborative learning.

[edit] Pre-school and kindergarten: birth to age 6 or 7

Waldorf schools approach learning in early childhood through imitation and example. Extensive time is given for guided free play in a classroom environment that is homelike, includes natural materials and provides examples of productive work in which children can take part; such an environment is considered by Waldorf pedagogues to be supportive of the physical, emotional and intellectual growth of the child through assimilative learning. Outdoor play periods are also generally incorporated into the school day, with the intention of providing children with experiences of nature, weather and the seasons of the year. Oral language development is addressed through songs, poems and movement games. These include daily story time when a teacher usually tells a fairytale, often by heart.

Aids to development via play generally consist of simple materials drawn from natural sources that can be transformed imaginatively to fit a wide variety of purposes. Waldorf dolls are intentionally made simple in order to allow playing children to employ and strengthen their imagination and creativity. Waldorf schools generally discourage kindergarten and lower grade pupils being exposed to media influences such as television, computers and recorded music, as they believe these to be harmful to children's development in the early years; this is consistent with the UK National Literacy Trust

The education emphasizes early experiences of daily, weekly and annual rhythms, including seasonal festivals drawn from a variety of traditions. Though Waldorf schools in the Western Hemisphere have traditionally celebrated Michaelmas and Martinmas in the autumn, Christmas in winter, Easter and May Day in the spring, and St. John's Day in summer, such schools are now incorporating an increasingly wide range of cultural and religious traditions, and schools located where Jewish, Buddhist, or Islamic traditions are dominant celebrate festivals drawn from these traditions.

Elementary education: age 6/7 to 14

Waldorf elementary school classroom

In Waldorf schools a child normally enters elementary education when she or he is nearing or already seven years of age. The elementary school centers around a multi-disciplinary arts-based curriculum that includes visual arts, drama, artistic movement (eurythmy), vocal and instrumental music, and crafts. Throughout the elementary years, students learn two foreign languages (in English-speaking countries often German and either Spanish or French).

Throughout the elementary years, concepts are first introduced through stories and images, and academic instruction is integrated with the visual and plastic arts, music and movement. There is little reliance on standardized textbooks; instead, each child creates his or her own illustrated summary of coursework in book form. The school day generally starts with a one-and-a-half to two-hour academic lesson that focuses on a single theme over the course of about a month's time and generally begins with an introduction that may include singing, instrumental music, recitations of poetry, including a verse written by Steiner for the start of a school day, and practice in mathematics and language arts.

An objective of most Waldorf schools is to have a single teacher loop with a class throughout the elementary school years, teaching at least the principal academic lessons; Waldorf teachers have been cited for their level of personal commitment to their pupils.

Waldorf teachers use the concept of the four temperaments to help interpret, understand and relate to the behaviour and personalities of children under their tutelage. The temperaments, choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic, and sanguine, are thought to express four basic personality types, each possessing its own fundamental way of regarding and interacting with the world.

Waldorf elementary education allows for individual variations in the pace of learning, based upon the expectation that a child will grasp a concept or achieve a skill when he or she is ready. Cooperation takes priority over competition. This approach also extends to physical education; competitive team sports are introduced in upper grades.

Secondary education

In most of the Waldorf schools, pupils enter secondary education when they are about fourteen years old. Secondary education is provided by specialist teachers for each subject. The education now focuses much more strongly on academic subjects,  though students normally continue to take courses in art, music, and crafts.

Pupils are encouraged to develop their own independent and creative thinking processes. The curriculum is structured to help students develop a sense of competence, responsibility and purpose, to foster an understanding of ethical principles, and to build a sense of social responsibility.

Curriculum

Though most Waldorf schools are autonomous institutions not required to follow a prescribed curriculum, there are widely-agreed guidelines for the Waldorf curriculum, supported by the schools' common principles. Government-funded schools may be required to incorporate aspects of state curricula.

The Waldorf curriculum has from its inception organically incorporated multiple intelligences. There are thus a few subjects largely unique to the Waldorf schools. Foremost among these is Eurythmy, a movement art usually accompanying spoken texts or music which includes elements of role play and dance and is designed to provide individuals and classes with a "sense of integration and harmony".The arts generally play a significant role throughout the pedagogy and Waldorf education's unique integration of the arts into traditional content has been cited as a model for other schools.

Waldorf schools generally introduce computers into the curriculum in adolescence.

 Looping

In the elementary schools, the homeroom teacher normally is expectedteach a group of children for several years. Traditionally teachers are expected to remain with a class from first through eighth grade, though an increasing number of schools are significantly reducing the duration of the loop. Looping has both advantages in the long-term relationships thus established and disadvantages in the challenge to teachers, who face a new curriculum each year. Such stability also requires all parties to maintain sustainable relationships, a frequently challenging task.

Reference

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education

Additional ideas, comments, suggestions, examples, and/or concerns related to assessing young children

I would like to suggest that if you are pressuring young children into standardize testing please do not hold them accoutable.  It will cost them problem late in life.  Thanks.