Testing for Intelligence?

Children need to think both critically and creatively and to solve complex problems. They also need to communicate well. Research shows a whole child approach to education will develop and prepare students for the challenges and opportunities in their world. In the public schools in the United States we focus on what a child should know and needs to know when completing a grade. The focus is all academic. I would like to show some social emotional approaches that have great success. Academic achievement and student behavior improve in schools with good social and emotional learning programs.
Child Development Program
For almost twenty years, the Developmental Studies Center in Oakland, California, has documented and evaluated results of its Child Development Project (CDP), which integrates lessons on caring, responsibility, and other positive traits with a rigorous curriculum that stresses cooperative learning, class meetings designed to build unity and a sense of shared purpose, buddy programs, and parental involvement. The research has consistently shown that students in CDP schools are more cooperative, helpful, and empathetic, are able to settle disputes among themselves without adult intervention, and are more committed to such democratic values as fairness and justice.
Resolving Conflict Creatively Program
A two-year study of 5,000 second- through sixth-grade children in fifteen New York City schools by the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University found a positive impact on children who received regular instruction in the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP) curriculum from motivated teachers.
Children who received about twenty-five lessons a year in the RCCP curriculum, which is a violence prevention program with a core underpinning of emotional and social instruction, performed significantly better on standardized academic achievement tests than other children. Their teachers also reported that students in the RCCP classes showed greater emotional control and social skills such as cooperation, were less violent, and felt better about themselves. A separate study of RCCP teachers in Atlanta found that their listening skills, their understanding of children's individual needs and concerns, and their own use of conflict resolution had improved. RCCP, which was highlighted at the 1998 White House Conference on School Safety, also resulted in fewer suspensions, less physical violence, and a lower dropout rate in Atlanta.
Responsive Classroom
A two-year (1996-1998) University of Wisconsin study by researcher Stephen Elliott of two Springfield, Massachusetts, schools -- one that used a social and emotional learning program called Responsive Classroom and one that did not -- found significant social and academic dividends for the students in the Responsive Classroom program. The program is based on six components: a morning meeting, classroom organization, rules and logical consequences, guided discovery, academic choice, and assessment and reporting.
Responsive Classroom teachers reported an increase in such student social skills as using time appropriately, initiating conversations with peers, and getting along with people who are different. They also reported a decrease in such problem behaviors as interrupting, excessive fidgeting or moving, and feeling anxious among other children. The control group reported much less improvement in those areas. Over the two-year period, the Responsive Classroom group also showed significantly greater growth on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.
Singapore
I chose to look at the school-age assessment in Singapore. My dad and step-mom lived there for 6 years. It also sparked my curiosity when looking at the chart in The Developing Person Through Childhood noticing Singapore was at the top ranking with math scores. They do not just look at the population of learners as a whole, but group them by learning ability. In 2005 the government chose to make cuts to curriculum and give greater focus to creative and critical thinking.
In 1999, fourth-grade test scores at the school using Responsive Primary education consists of a four year foundation stage from Primary 1–4 and a two year orientation stage from Primary 5 and 6. The overall aim of primary education is to teach the English language, Mother Tongue, Mathematics and Science. From the end of 2004, the EM1, EM2 and EM3 streaming for upper primary students were removed allowing schools the autonomy to decide how best to band their students by ability and value added information. Previously students were tested in Primary 4 to determine their stream: EM1 - brighter students, EM2 – average students and EM3 – a lower level of study for students who did not perform well in the testing.

References
http://www.edutopia.org/emotional-intelligence-research Singapore (Home page) foundEmotional-intelligence research: indicators point to the importance of sel. (2001, February 22).

Singapore – education system and school accountability. (2006). School Accountability Framework Review, Retrieved from http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/accountability/Docs/SINGAPORE.pdf