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Parents may hear the term "developmentally appropriate" bantered about from time to time by educators without having a solid understanding of the term. Put simply, the term means that what is appropriate for older children is not the same as what is appropriate for younger children. Children develop in stages of emotional, social, intellectual, and physical growth. These stages are also semi-independent; i.e. a child could be advanced socially or emotionally but behind his peers intellectually.

Developmentally appropriate practices are those that take into consideration both the relative development of a particular age group and the specific development of an individual child. A game of competitive volleyball in a high school physical education class is developmentally appropriate, and could be made more so by providing individualized instruction on serving for those who are not particularly strong in gross motor skills. The same class taught to first graders would be inappropriate because most young children lack the physical development for the game or the social and emotional skills to handle heavy competition and the pressure of performing serves while their whole team watches. Similarly, it is developmentally appropriate to correct a middle school science paper for spelling because students of that age have the intellectual capacity to spell words correctly or to look them up in a dictionary. Kindergartners, on the other hand, are allowed to "invent" spellings of words as best they can because it is far more important at that age to pass on a love of writing and storytelling than it is to punish them for incorrect spelling.

As the examples become less obvious and more ambiguous, there may be room for discussion about what is and what is not developmentally appropriate. The freedom of classroom teachers to make adjustments in their curriculum and teaching practices is absolutely critical in this regard, since it is the teachers who are in the best position to individualize instruction and foster the most robust growth possible for each student. This is especially true for early childhood and elementary grade children who show the greatest variety of developmental stages. Failing to account for stages of development at this age can hinder further growth with consequences right up to adulthood.

The question of the developmental appropriateness of standardized testing is important to visit. Many childhood experts, educational organizations and teachers have stated that such testing in the lower elementary grades should be flat out banned, especially below fourth grade. They say that the benefits--if there are any at all--are far outweighed by the damage that is done to the young students. In Readington, where a heavy standardized test schedule is now imposed on children as young as first and second grade, the leadership of the schools is going against the advice of some heavy hitters in the world of education, including twenty-nine well known experts who signed a statement written by the Alliance for Childhood, including the American Educational Research Association, and including the NEA. Is it developmentally appropriate for a first or second grader to be asked to sit down for several hours to fill in bubbles on a worksheet? Could that time and money be better spent? Is the resulting test data really worth the potential for harm to the individual students and the classroom environment? Is the data even worth the paper on which it is printed? Will Readington teachers and parents be given the opportunity to make their own decisions for individual students in their care?