This document discusses assessment in early childhood programs. It defines responsible assessment and lists its key characteristics. The purposes of assessment include promoting children's learning, identifying needs, evaluating program effectiveness, and making policy decisions. The document outlines different types of assessments including screening, formative assessment, authentic assessment, observations, interviews, tests and portfolios. It discusses recording and reporting assessment data as well as evaluating programs. Trends in assessment like increased state pre-K and pressures for inappropriate tests are also mentioned.

1. Chapter 11:
Assessment: An Essential
Component of Effective Early
Childhood Programming
Planning and Administering Early Childhood Programs
Tenth Edition
Nancy Freeman
Celia A. Decker
John R. Decker
Prepared by:
Nancy K. Freeman
Tere Holmes
Kris Curtis

2. 11-
Freeman/Decker/Decker, Planning and Administering Early Childhood Programs, 10e
© 2012, 2008, 2005, 2001, 1995 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Responsible Assessment
Characteristics of responsible assessment:
• Assessment is designed to benefit children and
families
• Instruments and data use are tailored to a specific
purpose
• Assessment practices are collaborative
• Assessments are developmentally valid
• Assessment is closely connected with the local
program’s goals
(NAEYC, 2001)

3. 11-
Freeman/Decker/Decker, Planning and Administering Early Childhood Programs, 10e
© 2012, 2008, 2005, 2001, 1995 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Purposes of Assessment
•Promoting children’s learning and development
•Identifying children’s specialized instructional
needs
•Determining program effectiveness
•Making policy decisions

4. 11-
Freeman/Decker/Decker, Planning and Administering Early Childhood Programs, 10e
© 2012, 2008, 2005, 2001, 1995 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Assessment that Promotes Children’s
Development and Learning
• Developmental Screening: is a brief, relatively
inexpensive standardized procedure designed to
quickly assess a large number of children to
identify those who should be referred for further
assessment
• Formative Assessment: Determines children’s
progress meeting program goals and objectives
and informs teaching and learning.

5. 11-
Freeman/Decker/Decker, Planning and Administering Early Childhood Programs, 10e
© 2012, 2008, 2005, 2001, 1995 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Authentic (or Performance)
Assessment
• Begins by identifying learning objectives.
• Is designed to determine if children demonstrate
identified competencies.
• Is conducted in the natural environment where
children are learning and living.

6. 11-
Freeman/Decker/Decker, Planning and Administering Early Childhood Programs, 10e
© 2012, 2008, 2005, 2001, 1995 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Observations
•Focus systematically on one child or a small
group of children
–Naturalistic observations focus on regular day-
to-day activities
○ Recorded as anecdotal records or running records
–Structured observations bring children into a
planned environment
○ Recorded though event sampling or time sampling

7. 11-
Freeman/Decker/Decker, Planning and Administering Early Childhood Programs, 10e
© 2012, 2008, 2005, 2001, 1995 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Additional Data Collection
Strategies
• Interviews with children and/or families
• Collections of children’s work samples
• Teacher designed tests
• Standardized Tests
– Criterion References Tests: Performance compared to
established standard
– Norm References Tests: Performance compared to
behavior/ performance of others

8. 11-
Freeman/Decker/Decker, Planning and Administering Early Childhood Programs, 10e
© 2012, 2008, 2005, 2001, 1995 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Ethical Use of Standardized Tests
• Assessments should only be used for their intended
purposes.
• Assessment instruments should meet acceptable
levels of quality (validity & reliability).
• Placement and retention decisions should be made
from multiple sources on information.
• Assessment instruments should be used only if
children will benefit from their use.

9. 11-
Freeman/Decker/Decker, Planning and Administering Early Childhood Programs, 10e
© 2012, 2008, 2005, 2001, 1995 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Curriculum/Criterion Based
Referenced Assessments
• High/Scope Child Observation Record
• The Work Sampling System
• Creative Curriculum Developmental Continuum
• Assessment, Evaluation, and Programming System
(AEPS)
• The Early Learning Scale (NIEER)

10. 11-
Freeman/Decker/Decker, Planning and Administering Early Childhood Programs, 10e
© 2012, 2008, 2005, 2001, 1995 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Types of Records
• Background information
– Includes information from families including past
school experiences, medical records, etc.
• Performance records
– Documents children’s learning
– Takes the form of log entries, anecdotal notes,
checklists, rating scales, work samples including
portfolios
• Referral records
• Summary records

11. 11-
Freeman/Decker/Decker, Planning and Administering Early Childhood Programs, 10e
© 2012, 2008, 2005, 2001, 1995 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Three Kinds of Portfolios
Display Portfolio:
– General descriptions and illustrations of what children
do in the classroom
Showcase Portfolio:
– Illustration of a child’s “best” work
Working Portfolio:
– Documentation of an individual child’s progression of
learning and skill development

12. 11-
Freeman/Decker/Decker, Planning and Administering Early Childhood Programs, 10e
© 2012, 2008, 2005, 2001, 1995 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Advantages of Extensive Record
Keeping
• Teachers make more informed decisions
• Helps to illustrate child progress
• Communicates to children and families that learning is
important
• Provides evidence of effectiveness
• Helps teachers determine effectiveness of teaching
practices

13. 11-
Freeman/Decker/Decker, Planning and Administering Early Childhood Programs, 10e
© 2012, 2008, 2005, 2001, 1995 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Reporting Assessment Information
•Commonly used tools for Reporting children’s
progress
○ Informal Reports
○ Formal Report Cards
○ Narrative Report Cards
○ Individual Conferences

14. 11-
Freeman/Decker/Decker, Planning and Administering Early Childhood Programs, 10e
© 2012, 2008, 2005, 2001, 1995 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Assessment that Evaluates Program
Effectiveness & Guides Policy Decisions
• Formative program assessment provides
information about how well the program is meeting
its goals and provides information about targeting
staff development.
• Summative program assessment is cumulative
and determines whether a program has met its
goals for program quality and student learning.

15. 11-
Freeman/Decker/Decker, Planning and Administering Early Childhood Programs, 10e
© 2012, 2008, 2005, 2001, 1995 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Reporting Program Effectiveness
• Determine the purposes of the report
• Decide how quantitative and qualitative
assessment data will be represented
• Against which criteria will assessment outcomes be
measured?
○ Children’s progress compared to a normed group?
○ Children’s success meeting specific goals?
• Decide how data will be assembled to be accessible

16. 11-
Freeman/Decker/Decker, Planning and Administering Early Childhood Programs, 10e
© 2012, 2008, 2005, 2001, 1995 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Trends and Issues
• The growth of state-funded pre-k programs and
pressures to use inappropriate, often high-stakes
assessments
• Time and training required for authentic
assessment
• Using assessment data for multiple purposes – not
for their intended uses
• Growing diversity and the challenges of assessing
English Language Learners