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Assessment Tool Essay Assessment is an ongoing process that implys collecting, synthesizing and interpreting information just about pupils, the classroom and their instruction. examination is one form of sound judgment that, appropriately applied, systematically meas- ures skills such as literacy and numeracy. While it does not provide a complete picture, testing is an important tool, for both(prenominal) its efficiency and ability to poster prescribed bodies of knowledge. Alternative or authentic forms of assess- ment butt end be culturally sensitive and pose an alternative to testing, but they involve a larger investment in establishing criteria forjudging development and training jurists. Child judging has value that goes well beyond measuring progress in children to evaluating programs, separateing staff development needs and planning future instruction. The younger the child, the more difficult it is to obtain valid assessments.Early develop- ment is rapid, e pisodic and highly influenced by experience. mental process on an assessment is affected by childrens emotional states and the conditions of the assessment. constitution Recommendations Require that measures included in an assess- ment be selected by qualified professionalsto ensure that they are reliable, valid and appropriate for the children being assessed. Develop systems of analyses so that test scores are interpreted as part of a broader assessment that may include observations, portfolios, or ratings from teachers and/or farms. Base policy decisions on an evaluation of data that reflects all aspects of childrens development cognitive, emotional, social, and physical. Involve teachers and parents in the assess- ment process so that childrens behaviors and abilities can be understood in various contexts and cooperative relationships among families and school staff can befostered. Provide training for early childhood teachers and administrators to earn and inter- pret s tandardized tests and other measures of learning and development. Emphasize precautions specific to the assessment of young children. NIEER Assessment of preschool-age children who may not reliably or uniformly respond to interrogatory has been the subject of much debate. The growing emphasis on testing young children as a means of holding programs accountable for their learning has intensified the discussion. though there are legitimate concerns regarding standardized testing, it and other forms of assessment are necessarycomponents of all high-quality early education programs.Properly conceived assessments are important to correspondence and sup- porting young childrens development. They are also essential to documenting and evaluating how effectively programs are meeting young childrens educational needs. For assessments to be effective, they must be practical, cost-efficient and meet reasonable standards of efficiency and validity. Testing usually involves a series of direct requests for children to perform, within a set amount of time, specific tasks designed and administered by adults. These tasks have predetermined answers.Alternative forms of assessment are more open-ended and often look at performance over an extended period. Examples include integrated observations, portfolio analyses of individual and collaborative work, and teacher and parent ratings of childrens behavior. What Can Be Learned Assessment can provide the following four types of information for and about children and their parents, teachers and programs Screen children to see if they need interventionparticularly when par- ents and teachers suspect a problem. Plan instruction for individuals and groups of children. Identify program improvement and staff development needs. quantify how well a program is meet- ing goals and needs for children. Data should be aggregated to determine whether desired outcomes are being achieved. Why Assessment is Important Preschool Policy Facts Ass essment is the process of collecting, synthesizing and interpreting information to aid classroom decision-making. It includes information gathered about pupils, instruction and classroom climate. Testing is a formal, systematic mapping for gathering a exemplar of pupils behavior. The results of a test are employ to make generalizations about how pupils would have performed on similar but untested behaviors. dick Airasian, Assessment in the Classroom 2 The quality of an assessment depends in part on decisions made before any meas- ure is administered to a child. Project designers should be able to explain why specific measures are used and what they hope to learn from the results. Assess- ment strategies can be formal (standard- ized testing) or informal (observation, portfolios, teacher and parent ratings). The selection of a strategy is guided by the purposes and goals of the assess- ment and is also affected by the available resources in terms of time, money and staff.Formal and informal assessmentstrategies each have strengths and weak- nesses. Therefore, a comprehensive assessment requires a multi-method approach in order to encompass the many dimensions of childrens skills and abilities. Standardized Testing intimately rigid of assessment strategies, places the greatest constraints on chil- drens behavior. Considered objective, time- and cost-efficient, and suitable for making quantitative comparisons of aggregated data across groups. Preschoolers performance is highly influenced by childrens emotional states and experiences, sometimes causing unstable scores over time.Most individual tests of cognitiveability must be administered in a controlled, relatively quiet area. Observations Intrude minimally into childrens activities, which naturally integrate all dimension of development intellectual, motivational, social, physical, aesthetic, etc. Should be used to complete develop- mental scales of proved reliability and validity, they are not suffi cient alone.Portfolios Involve treble sources and methods of data collection, and occur over a representative period of time. A collection of disciple work, the process provides richer information than standardized tests. Encourage collaboration betweenstudents, teachers, and parents and integrate assessment with instruction and learning.Teacher Ratings Can be used to assess childrens cogni- tive and language abilities as well as social and emotional development. Can be specifically related to other types of assessments, including stan- dardized test scores, other validated assessment tools, or global assessments of childrens traits. Parent Ratings Encourage parents to observe and listen to their children. Inform parents about the important behaviors and milestones in young childrens development and allows teachers to involve parents as partnersin assessment.Assessment Methods Preschool Policy Facts 3 Issues and positions involving assessment are summarized in a document fro m the home(a) Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education (NAECS/SDE) titled Early Childhood Curriculum, Assessment and Program Evaluation Building an Effective, Accountable administration in Programs for Children Birth through Age 8.Given the pervasive use of testing and its probable expansion, when and under what conditions can this type of assessment be used appropriately with preschool-agechildren? What characteristics of tests and their administration will guarantee that we do no harm to children and that we do help adults acquire valid informa- tion? Also, given that even the most well-designed tests can provide only limited data, how can we maximize the use of non-test assessments so they add valuable information beyond that obtained through standardized testing procedures? To adopt meaningful data and minimize the risk of creating a harmful situation, all assessment t ools for preschool-age children, whether formal or informal, should satisfy the following criteria Assessment should not exist childrens self-esteem, make them feel they have failed, or penalize them for what they do not know. Information should be obtained over time, or if time-distributed measurements are not feasible, foreign circumstances in the situation (e. g. , noise) or child (e. g. , fatigue) should be noted to avoid invalid, single-encounter results. Information should be obtained on the same content area from multiple and diverse sources, such as standardized tests, classroom observations and parent ratings, especially when repeated instances of data gathering are not feasible. The length of the assessment should be sensitive to young childrens interests and attention spans and therefore should probably not exceed 35-45 minutes. Testing for purposes of program accountability should be administered to a representative sample of students whenever feasible to reduce the overall time spent in testing and to minimize the chances for placing undue stress on children and burden on teachers and classrooms. Reliable and logical Preschool Assessment To be reliable and valid, standardized testing should Contain enough items to allow scores to represent this diverse range of indi-vidual ability, in order to identify and distinguish among children of low, average and high levels of ability. carry on place in a controlled environment that at least approximates the condi- tions experienced by the population on which the measure was standardized. Be administered by appropriately trained examiners who are familiar with testing materials and procedures and with working with young children.To obtain scores that resemble natural performance, informal assessments should Take place in or simulate the natural environment in which the behavior being evaluated occurs to avoid meas-uring the childs response to an artifi- cial environment preferably than the childs ability to perform on the content. Be conducted by an assessor who is knowledgeable regarding the assess- ment materials and familiar with the children being assessed. When an outside researcher or evaluator must administer the assessment, it is best if the individual spends time in the classroom beforehand. Measure real knowledge in the context of real activities, resembling childrens frequent activities as closely as possible. In addition, parent or teacher ratings should evaluate naturally occurringbehavior. Be conducted as a natural part of nonchalant activities rather than as a time-added or pullout activity. This fact sheet is based on the policy brief Preschool AssessmentA Guide to ontogenesis a Balanced Approach by Ann S. Epstein, Lawrence J. Schweinhart, Andrea DeBruin-Parecki and Kenneth B. Robin. The brief includes full references and is available at www. nieer. org. It was made possible by the generous support of The Pew human Trusts. The opinions expressed are tho se of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Preschool Policy Facts.