Assessments are important in early childhood education to identify students' strengths and weaknesses, place them in developmentally appropriate environments, and track their progress. Assessments help teachers modify their strategies to best benefit each child. They also allow teachers to communicate with families about learning progress and areas for improvement. While assessments inform instruction and support, they must be developmentally appropriate, culturally sensitive, and avoid stereotyping. Overall, assessments are a fundamental part of learning that help all stakeholders support students' academic success.

1. The Importance
of Assessments
in Early
Childhood
Education
By: Angela Donatoni
SOE:115
Professor O’Bryan
November 8, 2016

2. Question:
How do assessments help
promote student
achievement?

3. Hypothesis:
 Assessments help facilitate student
achievement because it gives the teacher an
idea on where the student stands
academically. Teachers and administration are
able to further examine the assessments and
see if a student needs more work on a subject
or has excelled at it. This helps them modify
their teaching strategies so the child is best
benefited.

4. Assessment Purposes:
 Assessments are used to identify the
strengths and weaknesses of a child. This
allows the student to be placed in the most
developmentally appropriate learning
environment.
 School administrators use assessments to
place students in services that may be
necessary. Then, they use the results to
evaluate if the services were effective.
 The state uses mandated assessments to
track progress, understand learning
tendencies and facilitate interventions if
needed.

5. Assessment Guidelines to
Follow:
 Use a variation of tools and types of
assessments
 Incorporate cultural diversity
 Tackle different developmental stages
 Address Common Core Standards (if
applicable)
 Utilize different academic sources
 AVOID:
 Stereotyping children
 Using assessments that are not developmentally
appropriate
 Foreshadowing future success

6. Purpose of
Assessments for
Families:
 Teachers can relay information they obtain
from assessments in regards to a child’s
learning progress and areas of concern.
 Teachers are able to assign learning
activities that can be done from home
according to the outcome of their
assessments.

7. Analyzing
“Assessments are procedures used to obtain
information about student performance.
(Woolfolk, 2016).”
After much gathered information, it is clear how
important assessments are to a students
achievement. These assessments are the
platform that allows parents, teachers, students,
administration and others to ultimately advocate
for a child’s best educational interest.

8. HOW TO: Promote
Assessments to Families-
“Before your child begins Kindergarten it is
important we start with a few assessments to
properly gauge their current learning capacity.
These assessments help me and school
administration address and achieve the best
learning plan to guarantee success for your
child. It will show me what subjects need more
attention and also which areas your child
exceeds in. I will be happy to share the results
with you once we are finished.”

9. Conclusion:
 Assessments are an important part of a students
achievement because they help inform a teacher,
as well as the student, on areas that may benefit
from improvement. It also helps identify children
who may have special needs that were previously
unknown. In addition to helping the child and
teacher, it helps schools monitor trends and
intervene if needed. Assessments are a
fundamental part of everyday learning and without
them teachers would struggle to gauge a students
academic level and progression over time.

10. Credible Sources
 Moving Forward with Kindergarten Readiness
Assessment Efforts: A Position Paper of the Early
Childhood Education State Collaborative on
Assessment and Student Standards (ERIC database)
 Promoting Quality Of Early Childhood Education
Through Assessment for Learning: Preparing Future
Globally Competent Citizens. (Education Source
database)
 Assessment in early childhood education: threats and
challenges to effective assessment of immigrant children.
(Education Research Complete database)
 Educational Psychology 13th Edition
 www.education.com/reference/article/why-assessment-
important/

11. References
 Howard, E. C., & Council of Chief State School, O. (2011). Moving Forward
with Kindergarten Readiness Assessment Efforts: A Position Paper of the
Early Childhood Education State Collaborative on Assessment and Student
Standards. Council Of Chief State School Officers.
 Ntuli, E., Nyarambi, A., & Traore, M. (2014). Assessment in early childhood
education: threats and challenges to effective assessment of immigrant
children. Journal Of Research In Special Educational Needs, 14(4), 221-
228. doi:10.1111/j.1471-3802.2012.01256.x
 PANG, N. n., & LEUNG, Z. z. (2014). PROMOTING QUALITY OF EARLY
CHILDHOOD EDUCATION THROUGH ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING:
PREPARING FUTURE GLOBALLY COMPETENT CITIZENS. BCES
Conference Proceedings, 12239-248.
 Woolfolk, Anita. Educational Psychology. 13 ed. 2016.