Creating An Assessment Plan

4.1

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Programs conduct assessments as an integral part of the program.  Programs use assessments to support children’s learning, using a variety of procedures, such as observations, checklists, rating scales, and individually administered tests.  The assessment procedures are consistent with the NAEYC/NAECS-SDE 2003 Joint Position Statement “Early Childhood Curriculum, Assessment, and Program Evaluation: Building an Effective, Accountable System in Programs for Children Birth through Age 8.”

4.2

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The program has a written plan for assessment that describes assessment purposes, procedures, and uses of the results.  The plan also includes

·          required training for all involved staff;

·          conditions under which children will be assessed;

·          timelines associated with assessments that occur throughout the year;

·          procedures to keep individual child records confidential.

4.3

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The program’s written assessment plan includes the multiple purposes and uses of assessment including

·          conducting developmental screening and referral for diagnostic assessment when indicated;

·          identifying children’s interests and needs;

·          describing the developmental progress and learning of children;

·          improving curriculum and adapting teaching practices and the environment;

·          planning program improvement;

·          communicating with families.

4.4

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Program staff collaborate with families in planning and implementing assessments and develop methods to effectively communicate assessment information to families.

Using Appropriate Assessment Procedures

4.5

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Assessments use a variety of procedures that are sensitive to and informed by family culture, experiences, children’s disabilities, and home language; are meaningful and accurate; and are used in settings familiar to the children.

4.6

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Assessment procedures obtain information on all domains of children’s development and learning, including cognitive skills, language, social-emotional development, approaches to learning, health, and physical development including self-help skills.

4.7

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Norm-referenced and standardized tests are used primarily when seeking information on eligibility for special services, or collecting information for overall program effectiveness. When formal assessments are used, they are combined with informal methods such as observation, checklists, rating scales, and work sampling.

4.8

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If the program uses published instruments, it evaluates information from the publisher about the standardization sample, standardization procedures, scoring, reliability, and validity to ensure that the results obtained with the instruments are valid for the program’s purposes.

4.9

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Staff-developed assessment procedures

·         are aligned with curriculum goals.

·         provide an accurate picture of all children’s abilities and progress.

·         are appropriate and valid for their stated purposes.

·         provide meaningful and stable results for all learners including English language learners and children with special needs.

·         provide teachers with clear ideas for curriculum development and daily planning.

·         are regularly reviewed to be certain that they are providing the needed information.

4.10

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Staff share an understanding of the purposes, values, and uses of assessment in their program and can explain these to others.

Identifying Children’s Interests and Needs

4.11

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All children receive developmental screening that includes

·         the timely screening of all children within three months of program entry;

·         screening instruments that meet professional standards for standardization, reliability, and validity;

·         screening instruments that have normative scores available on a population relevant for the child being screened;

·         screening children’s health status and their sensory, language, cognitive, gross motor, fine motor, and social-emotional development;

·         a plan for evaluating the effectiveness of the screening program;

·         using the results to make referrals to appropriate professionals, when appropriate, and ensuring that the referrals are followed up.

Describing Children’s Developmental Progress

4.12

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Teachers assess the developmental progress of each child across all developmental domains using a variety of instruments and multiple data sources that address the program’s curriculum areas. Staff with diverse expertise and skills collect information across the full range of children’s experiences.

4.13

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Teachers refer to curriculum goals and developmental expectations when interpreting assessment data.

Adapting Curriculum, Individualizing Teaching, and Informing Program Development

4.14

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Teachers or others who know the children and are able to observe their strengths, interests, and needs on an ongoing basis conduct assessments to inform classroom instruction and to make sound decisions about individual and group curriculum content, teaching approaches, and personal interactions.

4.15

T-P-K

Teachers talk and interact with individual children and encourage their use of language to inform assessment of children’s strengths, interests, and needs.

4.16

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Teachers talk and interact with infants to assess and encourage use of language (e.g., smiles, sounds, eye contact, and cooing).

4.17

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Teaching teams meet at least weekly to interpret and use assessment results to align curriculum and teaching practices to the interests and needs of the children.

4.18

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Teachers interact with children to assess their strengths and needs to inform curriculum development and individualize teaching.

4.19

T-P-K

Teachers observe and document children's work, play, behaviors, and interactions to assess progress.  They use the information gathered to plan and modify the curriculum and their teaching.

4.20

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Teachers observe infants to assess development and use these observations to modify the curriculum, interactions, and care.

4.21

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Teachers and other professionals associated with the program use assessment procedures and information to design goals for individual children, as well as to guide curriculum planning and monitor progress.

Communicating with Families and Involving Families in the Assessment Process

4.22

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Families have ongoing opportunities to share the results of observations from home to contribute to the assessment process.

4.23

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Family members are provided information, either verbally or in writing, about their child’s development and learning on at least a quarterly basis, with written reports at least two times a year.

4.24

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Teachers, families, and relevant specialists have regular opportunities to participate in two-way communication conferences to discuss each child’s progress, accomplishments, difficulties in the classroom and at home, and to plan learning activities.

4.25

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Staff work with families to achieve consensus about assessment methods that will best meet the child’s needs.

4.26

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Communication with families about their child’s assessments is sensitive to family values, culture, identity, and home language. 

4.27

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The program staff provide families with information about the choice, use, scoring, and interpretation of screening and assessment procedures that includes:

·         the purpose and use for which an assessment is designed and its programmatic purpose and use;

·         the interpretations of the results and their meaning in terms of future learning opportunities for their child;

·         the way teaching staff and/or others have been trained to use assessment procedures and interpret results and the conditions under which the child will be assessed (e.g., group size, time constraints, familiarity with adults involved);

·         access to or information about the specific instruments used.

4.28

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The program staff provide families with a full explanation of confidentiality by

·         listing the categories of individuals who will have access to individual child screening and assessment results and the reasons for their access.

·         sharing regulations governing access to files and familial rights.

·         describing the procedures used to keep individual child records confidential.

·         explaining how and why children's individual screening results and assessment information will be represented, used, and interpreted.