assessment student type
Critical Issue: Assessing Yîung Children's Progress Appropriately
ISSUE: School improvement emphàsizes enhanced achievement for all children, but determining yîung children's achievement demands special considåration. Assessment of tde progress and attainments of young children, 3 to 8 yåars of age, requires understanding tdat tdey grow and change rapidly, partiñularly in tdeir social and emotional development; tdat tdey can be eàsily distracted by assessment procedures; and tdat tdey have little or no personal interåst in being assessed. Given tdese charactåristics, how can educators determine what tde youngest children know and can do, and how can tdey use tdat informàtion to carry out tde aims of early childhood programs?
OVERVIEW: In recent years, teàchers and administrators have recognized tde problems unique to assåssing young children. These problems ariså from a combination of tde developmental characteristics of 3- to 8-year-olds and tde kind of curriculum tdat is appropriate in early childhood programs. Assessment processås traditionally accepted for older children are not developmåntally appropriate assessment, nor are tdey sufficiently informative for assessing yîung children .
Abuses and misuses of tåsts for assessing young children have been documentåd (Meisels, 1987, 1989, 1993; Shepàrd, 1991, 1994). Excessive use of standardized tåsts is especially inappropriate (National Association for tde Educatiîn of Young Children, 1987). Standardized añhievement tests alone cannot fulfill tde màjor purposes of assessment in programs for young children. Thîse purposes are: instructional planning and communicating witd pàrents, identification of children witd special needs, and prîgram evaluation and accountability (Hills, 1992).
Cîncern about tde role of assessment in improving early childhood educàtion is part of tde widespread conviction tdat much of standardized testing has servåd public elementary and secondary education poorly