Effective Practices in PreK Assessment

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Effective Practices in Pre-K Assessment

• Dr. Mary McLean
• University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

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Functions of Assessment

• Evaluation to Determine Eligibility
• Assessment for Program Planning
• Monitoring Child Progress
• Program Evaluation (Accountability)

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Division for Early Childhood (DEC)Recommended
Practices

• DEC Recommended Practices in Early
  Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education
  (Sandall, McLean and Smith)
• DEC Recommended Practices Program Assessment
  (Hemmeter, Joseph, Smith and Sandall)

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Soon to be released.

• DEC Recommended Practices A Comprehensive Guide
  for Practical
• Application. Longmont, CO Sopris Publishing
  Co
• DEC Recommended Practices Workbook
• DEC Executive Office
• www.dec-sped.org

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Eligibility

• Eligibility Criteria for Florida
• Traditional Assessment vs Authentic Assessment

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Florida Eligibility Criteria

• Child meets criteria for categories of
  exceptionality
• or
• Child meets criteria for developmental delay

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Criteria for Developmental Delay

• -2 SD or 25 delay in 1 developmental
• area or
• -1.5 SD or 20 delay in 2 areas or
• use of informed clinical opinion

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Traditional Assessment

• Standardized norm-referenced instruments
• Administered separately by discipline
• Administered in testing rooms at the center
• Parents are not involved in testing or
  decision-making

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The result of traditional assessment could be.

• the strange behavior of children in strange
  situations with strange adults for the briefest
  possible period of time.
• (Bronfenbrenner, 1979)

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Authentic Assessment

• Authentic assessment is assessment that occurs in
  real life contexts with realistic performance
  demands

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• The best way to understand the development of
  children is to observe their behavior in natural
  settings while they are interacting with familiar
  adults over prolonged periods of time
• (also Bronfenbrenner)

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• Authentic assessment is a deliberate plan for
  investigating the natural behavior of young
  children. Information is captured through direct
  observation, interviews, rating scales and
  observed samples of the natural or facilitated
  play and daily living skills of children
• (Neisworth Bagnato, 2004)

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Examples of Authentic Assessment

• Observation in natural settings
• Play-based assessment
• Parent/caregiver interviews

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Authentic assessment results are facilitated by .

• Pre-assessment planning
• Parent involvement in the planning and in the
  assessment
• Use of informed clinical opinion based on
• review of existing information,
• observation in familiar environments,
• gathering of information from parents
• and other adults who know the child

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A good example of the importance of authentic
assessment for purposes of eligibility is the
assessment of children who are English Learners
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Assessing Children who are English Learners

• One out of every five school-aged children comes
  from a home where a language other than English
  is spoken
• One out of every three teachers has an English
  Learner in their classroom
• (P. Tabors, One Child, Two Languages)

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Myths about second language acquisition

• Young children learn second languages quickly and
  effortlessly
• If a child is delayed in their home language and
  also in English, they must have a language or
  cognitive disability

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The assessment team should have knowledge about

• Bilingualism and factors influencing bilingualism
• Second language acquisition
• Typical processes of language acquisition that my
  impact a childs performance

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Bilingualism

• Simultaneous or successive
• Age of acquisition
• Amount of exposure to both languages
• Opportunity/motivation to use both languages

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Second Language AcquisitionStages of Successive
Bilingualism

• Continued use of home language to communicate
  with others who use the second language
• Passage through a silent/nonverbal period while
  acquiring receptive language
• Use of telegraphic (formula) speech
• Beginning productive use of second language

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Processes of language acquisition that may impact
a childs performance

• Language loss
• Codeswitching

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To adequately assess eligibility for special
education of children who are English Learners

• Pre-assessment planning to gather existing
  information and to plan processes and procedures
• Involve family in planning and implementing the
  assessment
• Select non-discriminatory instruments or
  procedures
• Administer the assessment in the childs dominant
  language (or in both languages)
• The team should have expertise in second language
  acquisition and should use informed clinical
  opinion

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Functions of Assessment

• Evaluation to Determine Eligibility
• Assessment for Program Planning
• Monitoring Child Progress
• Program Evaluation (Accountability)

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Accountability

• A system designed to evaluate whether, and to
  what degree, programs meet standards or
  expectations.

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In God We Trust.

• From everybody else,
• we expect data!

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A Nation At Risk

• In 1983 the Carnegie Foundation released a study
  that found that the quality of education in the
  United States lagged behind that of other
  industrialized nations

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White House and Congress

• U.S. Department of Education
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Part C and Section 619 of IDEA
• Head Start

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Government Performance and Results Act1993

• All federal agencies are required to identify
  program goals and indicators and must report
  their progress to Congress annually.

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Preschool GPRA Indicators

• of preschool children who receive special
  education in inclusive settings will increase
• of preschool children with disabilities
  receiving special education and related services
  who have readiness skills when they reach
  kindergarten

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Program Assessment Rating Tool

• Whitehouse
• Office of Management and the Budget

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The PART Assessment was introduced in 2002 by OMB
as a tool to promote performance-based
budgeting. It is designed to establish a
meaningful link between GPRA and the budget
process.
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Program IDEA Preschool Grants

• KPI
• of preschool children receiving special
  education and related services who have
  readiness skills when they reach kindergarten
• FY2002 Spring Review
• Results not demonstrated

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IDEA 97

• -Provide access to the general education
  curriculum
• -Include students with disabilities in state and
  district-wide assessment with appropriate
  accommodations
• -Establish performance goals and performance
  indicators for students

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No Child Left Behind2001

• Strengthens requirements for an accountability
  system aligned with state standards
• All districts and schools must make adequate
  yearly progress (AYP) toward reaching proficiency
  for all children within 12 years

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Good Start Grow Smart2002

• Accountability for Head Start National
  Reporting System will assess child progress in
  early literacy, language and numeracy skills
• States develop quality criteria for ECE
  voluntary guidelines on pre-reading and language
  skills aligned with K-12
• Improve information available to parents and
  caregivers about best practices in early
  development

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HSNRS Assessment Battery

• Simon Says and Art Show
• PPVT-III
• Letter Naming Task
• Elision Task (phonological awareness)
• Applied problems from the Woodcock-Johnson
• ECLS-K Math test

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Where we are nowEvery state must develop.

• Child and family outcomes and indicators for PreK
  Special Education
• A system for measuring progress toward the
  outcomes and indicators

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Functions of Assessment

• Evaluation to Determine Eligibility
• Assessment for Program Planning
• Monitoring Child Progress
• Program Evaluation (Accountability)

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Accountability!

• IDEA 97
• No Child Left Behind

• Good Start/Grow Smart
• GPRA and PART

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Professional Organization Positions

• NAEYC Position Statement on Curriculum,
  Assessment and Program Evaluation
• NAEYC Accreditation Criteria

• DEC Companion Paper for NAEYC Paper

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Pre-Kindergarten Curriculum

• More and more, curriculum is driven by state
  content standards
• Florida School Readiness Performance
  Standards For Preschool Three Year Olds
• Florida School Readiness Performance
  Standards for Preschool

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DEC recommends a curriculum framework for
determining the content of instruction for all
children

• State standards serve as the common scope and
  sequence for all learners in the state
• In addition, children with IEPs will have
  individually targeted goals and objectives that
  are based on the childs present level of
  performance and need for developing functional
  skills

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Assessment for program planning (developing the
IEP) may include

• A review of state standards/curriculum
• Criterion-referenced assessments
• Observation of the child in typical environments
• Functional behavioral assessment
• Additional assessments/procedures identified by
  the IEP team

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Monitoring Child Progress

• Some progress monitoring assessment will apply to
  all Pre-K children. Whatever system has been
  adopted for all preschool children will also be
  used with children with disabilities
• Examples include portfolio assessment, work
  sampling, the Creative Curriculum,
• the High Scope Child Observation Record. etc

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One mark of excellent teachers is the frequency
with which they evaluate and change childrens
instructional programs continually adapting them
to meet the needs of each child

• Bailey and Wolery, 1992

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Additional assessment will be needed to measure
progress toward IEP goals and objectives

• Plan ahead
• Align assessment with embedded learning
  opportunities (Raver article on routines-based
  monitoring
• Utilize an activity-objective matrix
• Use a variety of authentic assessment methods

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Potential methods for monitoring child progress
toward goals and objectives

• Anecdotal notes
• Journaling
• Permanent records
• Counts or tallies
• Event sampling
• Time sampling

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Some Final Thoughts

• Assessment informs instruction
• There wont be quality instruction without
  quality assessment
• Assessment is a continuous process rather than
  episodic