The Assessment Process
Sunshine2016
EarlyChildhoodAssessmentPowerPoint2.ppt*
Early Childhood Assessment:
Information for Early Childhood Program Administrators
Welcome and thank you for participating in this presentation on early childhood assessment designed specifically for early childhood administrators. The intended audience for this presentation is child care center directors, family child care system staff, Principals, and all other related administrators in early childhood programs. Throughout the presentation you will be taken through a series of narrated, informational slides. This presentation is approximately 30 minutes and can be paused at any time. If you need to take a break and return later, you may do so by returning to the presentation and clicking on the slide that you were on to resume the presentation.
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Overview
What and why it is important
Early Childhood vs. K-12 assessment
Types of child assessment systems
Support to staff
Use of data
Equipment, materials, resources
Parent Involvement
Role of Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care
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We know that high-quality early education can have many lasting benefits. Many people are asking important questions about how young children are progressing and learning. The goal of this presentation is to help you better understand how early childhood assessment contributes to high-quality early childhood education.
This presentation will inform you about early childhood assessment by explaining what it is and why it is important. We will explain the difference between early childhood assessment and K-12 assessment. We will discuss the different types of child assessment systems, ways to support your staff in implementing a child assessment system, and how to use assessment data for program improvement. We will highlight the types of equipment, materials and resources that are needed, how to involve parents in the assessment process, and the role of the MA Dept. of Early Education and Care.
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What is Early Childhood Assessment?
Process of observing, recording, and documenting work of children
Allows educators to make the best decisions for the child
Methods can include standardized tests observations, child portfolios, teacher and parent checklists and child and parent interviews
Child screening vs. assessment
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What is early childhood assessment? The National Association for the Education of Young Children defines early childhood assessment as the process of observing, recording and otherwise documenting the work that children do and how they do it. The data produced from child assessments helps you to better understand the development of a child and therefore make more informed decisions about how to work with that child.
Early childhood assessment includes a variety of methods for assessing a child’s growth and development.
- Including standardized tests where all children are assessed exactly the same, under controlled conditions.
- Or child observations, individual child portfolios, teacher or parent checklists, and child- parent interviews, all of which engage children in tasks that are personally meaningful in real life situations.
Note that “child assessment” is different than “child screening”. The purpose of screening is to check that children are generally on developmental track. The information resulting from the screening process is used to determine if a child needs to be referred for further assessment and support. In contrast, early childhood assessment looks at children’s development in a more nuanced way, and the information is used to shape the curriculum to enhance a child’s learning and to move a child forward in their development
Why is Early Childhood Assessment Important?
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Growing emphasis on early childhood assessment
Better decisions regarding teaching and learning
Identifying children
with special needs
Program Improvement
Why is early childhood assessment important?
It is important because there is increasing attention to how children are progressing and measuring young children's progress is different from assessment at other ages. High-quality assessment can also improve the way interactions and teaching happens in early childhood programs. For example, a program might learn through assessment that children can't hold a pencil correctly and then start to focus more on activities where children can practice writing and drawing.
In addition, assessment can also help identify children with special needs and provide starting information from which to refer them to specialists to get additional services.
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What about a child is assessed?
Emotional/Social: expressing feelings, forming friendships, resolving conflicts with others
Language: listening and talking
Physical: using pencils (fine motor skills), climbing and running (gross motor skills)
Cognitive: numbers, colors, and patterns
Approaches to Learning: curiosity and excitement about learning and ways of learning new information
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What about a child is assessed?
Early childhood assessment should look at every aspect of a child’s development including emotional / social, physical, language, cognitive, and their approach to learning.
Emotional and social development includes a child’s ability to recognize and express their feelings, form friendships, and resolve conflicts with others.
Language development includes how a child listens and the way in which a child is talking.
Physical development includes fine motor skills like holding and using scissors and gross motor skills like climbing and riding a tricycle.
Cognitive development includes knowledge about numbers, colors and patterns.
Approaches to learning is just that – how a child approaches learning and how they learn new information.
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How does early childhood assessment
differ from K-12th grade assessment?
Kindergarten – 12th grade assessment places emphasis on academic knowledge
Early childhood assessment places emphasis on all aspects of a child’s development
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How does early childhood assessment differ from K-12th grade assessment?
Early childhood assessment differs from Kindergarten to 12th grade education assessment in a variety of ways.
K-12 education assessment emphasizes academic knowledge such as reading and math skills. Early childhood assessment has some focus on age appropriate academic knowledge like numbers and letters, but also looks at the entire child’s development, such as social/emotional and physical development.
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How does early childhood assessment differ from K-12th grade assessment continued…
K-12th grade assessment uses mainly tests, quizzes and essays.
Early childhood assessment uses child observations, developmental checklists and child portfolios
Both are used to guide decisions about…
Child interventions
Resources
K-12 education uses information such as tests, quizzes and essays to look at children's progress. Usually this assessment is done at one point in time, like the end of a unit of study. Early childhood uses different types of tools to look at children's growth, like child observations, developmental checklists, child portfolios with examples of children’s work and is done on an ongoing basis (daily/weekly or periodically throughout year).
Both early childhood and K-12 assessments guide decisions about child interventions and resources. However K-12 assessment tends to guide decisions about staff training and new programming whereas early childhood assessment focuses more on children's need for additional services and how curriculum might be changed/improved.
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Types of Child Assessment Systems
Program-developed child assessment tools
Pros
Cons
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Often early childhood programs wonder what the difference is between a program-developed child assessment system and a published (or packaged) child assessment system. And is one better than another? The next two slides talk about what each one is and their pros and cons.
Program-developed assessment systems may use a number of different methods to develop an assessment system including checklists, child portfolios or observation records. The system is explicitly designed to follow the program’s philosophy and curriculum.
The pros of using a program-developed assessment system is that it is aligned with the program’s overall philosophy and curriculum. A program-developed system usually involves all staff in the development and implementation, therefore creating a strong sense of buy-in to use the system. Training on how to use the system is done in-house and requires little money. Programs also don’t have to pay user fees or subscriptions.
The cons of using a program-developed assessment tool is that these types of systems are not scientifically-based, meaning that they have not been through a rigorous testing process to validate that what is thought of as being measured on the tool is actually being measured. Because of this, program-developed assessment systems tend to be less credible within the field of education. Program-developed child assessment systems also take many iterations before they are perfected program-wide and are time-consuming to develop.
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Types of Child Assessment Systems cont…
Published (or packaged) child assessment tools
Pros
Cons
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Published child assessment systems are packaged with pre-designed tools covering the development and growth of young children.
The pros of using a published child assessment system is that some have gone through the process of being accepted as research or scientifically-based with all domains of early childhood development considered. The tools are pre-designed and ready to use. Electronic or on-line services often accompany published tools to help the user organize and analyze their child assessment data. Some of the online services also are designed to help teachers plan their day, by offering activities based on where the children in the classroom are developmentally.
The cons of using a published child assessment system is the expense of purchasing the system and maintaining the system (e.g. for some on-line systems a per child fee exists). Some published systems are online and require Internet access and knowledge of technology to use. Extensive training is typically necessary in order to use the published system effectively. A published system may or may not align precisely with a program’s philosophy or curriculum.
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Choosing an Appropriate Assessment System
A well-designed assessment system:
Considers all domains of child development
Is developmentally appropriate
Aligned with your curriculum and the state’s early learning standards
Reliable, valid, and fair
Captures growth over a period of time
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When considering selecting an early childhood assessment system, here are some factors to keep in mind:
1.) Does the assessment system consider all the domains of child development (physical, cognitive, language and literacy, social-emotional, approaches to learning)?
2.) Is the approach to child assessment developmentally appropriate?
3.) Is the child assessment system aligned with your curriculum and the state’s early learning standards?
4.) Does the child assessment system have information on reliability and validity?
5.) Does the child assessment system seem fair to all children, including those with disabilities?
6.) Is the child assessment system able to provide information about a child’s growth and development over a period of time in the child’s natural setting?
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Training Opportunities on Early Childhood Assessment
Opportunities for staff to better understand early childhood assessment
College courses
Training by publishers
Offerings through local Child Care Resource and Referral Agency
EEC Professional Development calendar: www.eec.state.ma.us/ProfessionalDevelopment/WebFindTraining.aspx
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Whether you are new to child assessment or have been doing it for many years, everyone can benefit from further training in child development principles and assessment practices. Here are a few suggestions of places to look for relevant training opportunities.
College courses - College courses can provide a foundation in the importance and theory behind early childhood assessment and how it ties in with curriculum. Certain college courses may also spend time on how to align curriculum and assessment.
Trainings offered by the tools’ publishers - Training is also offered by the publishers of the various child assessment systems and can include on-site or multi-site training. This type of training is often done over a 2-3 day period and typically includes technical assistance following the training and sometimes a follow-up training once the program has used the assessment system for a period of time.
Your local child care resource and referral agency may also offer courses and workshops about child development principles, basics of assessment, and opportunities for practitioners to share best practices.
You can also now check the EEC Professional Development calendar at the website listed on the screen for professional development opportunities across the state.
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Ways to Support Your Staff in the Assessment Process
Confidential observations
Assistance in writing summary statements
ELL staff and observations
Computer access
Staff meeting agenda item
Time for training and implementation
Staff planning time
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Here are some suggestions from your colleagues about ways to support your staff in the process of implementing an assessment system:
1.) Allow staff to write their observations confidentially. Let them know that no one, including parents and their supervisor will see their written observations.
2.) Help staff in writing up any summary statements for parents.
3.) For teachers who are not comfortable writing in English, let them write their observation in their native language and offer assistance with translation through another staff member
4.) Ensure that teachers have computer access readily available to avoid having to record child observations twice. (As in having to write them on paper, and then type them into the computer.)
5.) Have child assessment be a standing agenda item at staff meetings.
6.) Provide time for training and implementation to be effective. (For example, give teachers 6-12 months to try out the assessment system before sharing information with parents and allow 3-6 months for training to be scheduled and conducted.)
7.) Provide regularly scheduled staff planning time for teams to meet and discuss child assessments.
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Using Child Assessment Data
Evaluate effectiveness
Staff support
Better inform parents
Assist in child transitions
Identify children who need
special services
Program improvement
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The product of using a child assessment tool is, well, a lot of data. So the question is what can you use all that child assessment data for? Lot of things!
A program can read its child assessment data to understand how effective it is being in delivering its curriculum.
The data can point to what staff need in terms of support and professional development.
Child assessment data can better inform parents of their child’s growth and development, by generating concrete examples.
The assessment data can assist in children’s transitions, as well as flag when a child has a special need.
Data can be used for a larger purpose in the development of educational policies that all programs can benefit from.
Overall, child assessment data can drive a continuous quality improvement cycle at the classroom and program levels.
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Suggested Equipment, Materials, and Resources
Equipment: computer, printer, digital camera, high-speed internet
Materials: notebooks for portfolios, photo paper, paper, clip boards, post-it notes
Resources: assessment tool-kits, books/articles on early childhood assessment
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Here are some suggestions of equipment, materials, and resources, that other programs have found useful when implementing a child assessment system.
Having appropriate technology is important, especially if the electronic version of the assessment tool is going to be used. Having access to computers with Internet access, printers, and digital cameras, can help staff and providers document the day-to-day progress of children.
Certain consumable materials should be available and purchased regularly. Examples include, computer paper, ink, photo paper, notebooks or other containers that hold children’s work and clip boards and post-its to take observations.
It is also helpful to have resources like the assessment’s tool-kit and accompanying materials. Books or articles about child assessment that parents and staff can refer to are helpful in gaining insight and understanding into early childhood assessment.
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How can Parents be Involved in the Early Childhood Assessment Process?
Enrollment
On-site developmental screenings
Parent Checklists
Parent/Teacher conferences
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Engaging parents in the early childhood assessment process is vital to the success of assessing the growth and development of the whole child. Here are some suggestions to further involve parents in the assessment process. Remember, that screening is different than assessment, but the results of any screenings should be taken into account when you do assessment.
First, at the time of enrollment, parents should be asked about their child’s development and any screenings done to date by the child’s physician or an outside agency.
Second, your program might offer to have free on-site developmental screenings for children and educate the parents on the importance of early screening and detection of special needs.
Third, you can periodically send home parent checklists that enable parents to provide feedback on their child’s development.
And Fourth, you can arrange for an annual parent/teacher conference where assessment data is shared with parents. Related to this, your program can offer transitional conferences when a child is making a transition to another classroom, program, or public school. During these conferences you could share the knowledge that you have gained through daily experience and assessment about that child’s development.
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What is Massachusetts currently doing around early childhood assessment?
Universal Pre-Kindergarten Pilot Project
Assessment Planning Grants
More information: www.eec.state.ma.us
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What is Massachusetts currently doing around early childhood assessment?
EEC encourages early childhood programs to consider using a child assessment tool to understand and respond to children's learning and progress.
Currently one of the requirements for EEC's Universal Pre-Kindergarten program is use of an EEC-selected child assessment tool. EEC also awards assessment planning grants to help programs start using an assessment system.
If you are interested in finding out more about the UPK grant program please visit EEC’s website at www.eec.state.ma.us.
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UPK Eligible Child Assessment Tools
Creative Curriculum’s Developmental Continuum or CreativeCurriculum.net
Work Sampling System
High Scope Child Observation Record
Ages and Stages Questionnaire
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More specifically, the four assessment tools approved for the UPK grant are:
- Creative Curriculum’s Developmental Continuum or CreativeCurriculum.net
- Work Sampling
- High Scope Child Observation Record, and
- the Ages and Stages Questionnaire.
For more information on these individual tools, please click on the attachment tab to the left of this presentation.
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In closing…
Suggested articles specific to early childhood assessment
Contact at the Dept. of Early Education and Care:
Jennifer Louis
Dept. of Early Education and Care
51 Sleeper St., 4th Floor
Boston, MA 02210
(617)988-6640
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In closing, if you click on the attachment tab of this presentation you will also find suggested articles that are specific to early childhood assessment. For more information about what is going on in Massachusetts related to early childhood assessment, please contact Jennifer Louis at the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care. We hope that this information about early childhood assessment was useful.
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