SCHOOL READINESS ASSESSMENT

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SCHOOL READINESS ASSESSMENT

• Kelly L. Maxwell

March 10, 2005 CCPRC meeting
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Five Major Purposesof Early Childhood Assessments

• Improve/support childrens learning
• Identify special needs
• Evaluate programs
• Monitor trends
• High-stakes accountability

NEGP report, Principles Recommendations for
Early Childhood Assessments
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Purpose 1 Support Learning

• Audience teachers
• Methods observation, work samples
• Timing ongoing
• Closely tied to curriculum
• Lowest level of technical accuracy
• Assess all children
• Low stakes

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Purpose 2 Identify Special Needs

• Audience parent, teachers, specialists
• Methods standardized, norm-referenced
  assessments
• Two stages of data collection
• brief screening for all
• in-depth assessment

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Purpose 2 Identify Special Needs

• Timing periodically
• Not tied closely to curriculum
• Higher level of technical adequacy

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Purpose 3 Evaluate Programs

• Audience policymakers, public
• Methods mixture
• Low stakes--consequences for programs
• No decisions about individuals

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Purpose 3 Evaluate Programs

• Timing beginning and end of program (usually)
• High standards of technical accuracy
• Assess sample of children
• Child data just one part of evaluation

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Purpose 4 Monitor Trends

• Audience policymakers, public
• Timing snapshot, repeated every few years
• Methods mixture
• High standards of technical accuracy
• Assess sample of children
• Accountability in the large sense
• How well is a state doing?

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Purpose 4 High Stakes Accountability

• Audience policymakers, public
• Data collection standardized assessments
• High stakes--consequences for individuals
  (children, teachers)
• Assess all children, usually

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Purpose 4 High Stakes Accountability

• Before age 8, standardized achievement measures
  are not sufficiently accurate to be used for
  high-stakes decisions about individual children
  and schools.
• p. 29 of Principles and Recommendations for Early
  Childhood Assessments, NEGP report

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Purpose 4 High Stakes Accountability

• Accountability ? Testing
• Require monitoring
• Require an intervention plan

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Agreements in the Field aboutEarly Childhood
Assessment

• Paper and pencil tests wont work.
• Assessing younger children is harder than
  assessing older children.
• School readiness assessments should cover more
  than 1 area of development.

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Agreements

• Were better at measuring some things (cognitive
  development) than others (social).
• Our assessment tools are very limited for
  children who do not speak English.

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Disagreements in the Field aboutEarly Childhood
Assessments

• Which type of assessment is betternaturalistic
  assessments vs. standardized assessments?
• Is it OK to use assessments of young children for
  high-stakes purposes?

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Disagreements

• Should we use teacher-reported child assessment
  data to make decisions about programs and
  teachers?
• Can we use one assessment tool for multiple
  purposes?

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Resources

• Principles Recommendations for Early Childhood
  Assessments, NEGP report
• Available at
• http//www.negp.gov/Reports/prinrec.pdf
• Assessing Kindergarten Children What School
  Systems Need to Know, SERVE report
• Available at
• http//www.serve.org/publications/rdakcg.pdf

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Resources

• Assessing Kindergarten Children A Compendium of
  Assessment Instruments, SERVE report
• Available at
• http//www.serve.org/publications/rdakcc.pdf
• Readiness for School A Survey of State Policies
  and Definitions (2000). Saluja, Scott-Little,
  Clifford
• Available at
• http//ecrp.uiuc.edu/v2n2/saluja.html

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Resources

• Child and Program Assessment Tools for
  Educators. January 2004 Issue of Young Children
• Available at
• http//www.journal.naeyc.org/btj/200401/