Competency 5
Assess, monitor development and learning, and make effective decisions
Early childhood educators use observation, documentation, and assessment to understand children’s development and guide their planning and decisions. By watching, listening, and recording, educators learn about children’s skills, interests, behaviors, needs, and lived experiences, or “funds of knowledge.” Educators reflect on this information with curiosity and use it to plan learning activities, adjust learning environments, and follow children’s progress over time.
Reflection questions
Ask yourself these as you read — there are no right answers.
- What is your system for observing children and gathering information about their strengths, interests, development, and learning?
- How do you document children’s development and progress, and share that progress with families?
- In what ways do you partner with families to help you fully understand each child as a unique individual?
- How do you use what you learn through your observations and assessments to modify your approach to meet the needs of each child?
Stand aside for a while and leave room for learning, observe carefully what children do, and then, if you have understood well, perhaps teaching will be different from before.
What educators need to be effective
Things to Know
- Assessment as the process of getting to know a child or a group of children for a variety of purposes; gathering information to make decisions (e.g., anecdotes, getting to know families, uncovering funds of knowledge).
- That assessment is a process that happens for distinct reasons (e.g., learning about children’s developmental progress, determining eligibility for supports and services, and program evaluation).
- How to identify assessment tools that are unbiased, reliable, valid, and can be used to make sound decisions for a given population of children.
Skills to Build
- Using early learning guidelines or other standards of child development to support observation, assessment, and planning.
- Remaining objective and using systematic notetaking to record low-inference observations.
- Using developmental checklists to inform objective, engaged developmental monitoring.
- Sharing assessment results in a manner that is understandable for families.
Habits of Mind and Dispositions
- Wonders about children’s development and learning progress.
- Respects families as experts in the child’s life.
- Reflects on the possible influence of bias on their view of children and families.
Focus areas
Developmental Monitoring and Screening
Use developmental monitoring to track children’s milestones and screening tools to identify when a child may need extra support with development or learning.
- Observes children in familiar, everyday activities.
- Wonders about children’s development and learning progress.
- Uses checklists and other tools to look for children’s developmental milestones.
- Uses developmental screening tools to recognize when children might need additional support with development or learning.
- When relevant and appropriate, contributes to and supports processes for evaluation related to determining eligibility for additional supports and services.
- Uses tools to screen for word reading and comprehension difficulties with prekindergarten, kindergarten, and early elementary school-aged children.
- Uses tools to screen for math difficulties with prekindergarten, kindergarten, and early elementary school-aged children.
- Collaborates effectively as part of a transdisciplinary evaluation team when relevant.
- Reads and interprets formal evaluation reports.
- Understands steps in the process of identifying children for special services under the
- Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), federal and state laws, regulations, and common practices related to determining eligibility.
Authentic Assessment
Gather information using multiple methods, like work samples, observations, portfolios, interviews, and curriculum-based assessments; and document children’s skills and competencies through written descriptions, visual artifacts, photographs, video or audio recordings, counts, or tallies.
- Wonders about children’s development and learning progress.
- Observes children intentionally in everyday, familiar activities.
- Identifies children’s strengths.
- Identifies skills and behaviors to watch for during observations.
- Uses New York State Early Learning Guidelines or child development standards to support observation and documentation.
- Gathers information about children’s development and learning through multiple methods, including work samples, observations, portfolios, interviews, and curriculum-based assessments.
- Shares responsibility for observation with team members, including teaching assistants and related service providers.
- Summarizes, analyzes, and interprets information from authentic assessment to guide support for children’s development and learning.
- Recognizes when there are concerns about a child’s development or learning and decides when more assessment information is needed.
- Uses assessment information to determine which child outcomes are most important to focus on.
- Uses assessment information to consider whether families’ priorities are being addressed.
Using Assessment to Plan
Use assessment information to determine what, where, and how to teach and care for the whole group, small groups, and individual children.
No practice examples available.
- Uses assessment to understand and measure children’s development.
- Uses assessment information to decide what to teach, where learning happens, and how to support the whole group, small groups, and individual children.
- Makes changes to teaching or caregiving based on assessment information to ensure all children are making progress.
- Uses a holistic approach to monitor children’s progress, considering multiple factors such as home/community situations, medications, previous care and education, and other past experiences.
- Uses a tiered model of progress monitoring to match instructional levels and ensure all children receive needed instruction.
Sharing Assessment Information
Share objective information about children’s progress with families and use multiple methods (e.g., pictures, written notes, graphs) to communicate children’s strengths, skills, and areas for support.
No practice examples available.
- Regularly shares information about children’s progress with families.
- Shares information with families as objectively as possible.
- Shares documentation and information about children’s development and learning at conferences and other formal meetings.
- Uses multiple methods (e.g., pictures, written notes, graphs) to communicate children’s strengths, skills, and areas for support.
- Shares information more frequently for children working on individualized or focused goals.
- Writes assessment or evaluation reports in an affirming and unbiased way.
Responsible Formal Assessment Process
Select and use formal assessment tools that are culturally and developmentally appropriate, can be used to make decisions about caring for and teaching children, and are relevant for daily planning and curriculum development. Use formal assessment tools for their intended purposes and demonstrate basic skills for conventional assessment.
No practice examples available.
No practice examples available.
- Engages families in the formal assessment process using a conversational approach to determine how they would like to participate.
- Gathers assessment information in familiar settings with familiar toys, objects, and everyday activities whenever possible.
- Uses assessment tools and procedures that are culturally and linguistically appropriate for the children in the group or classroom.
- Uses multiple measures to assess children during the formal assessment process (e.g., observations, curriculum-based assessments, work samples, clinical opinion).
- Carefully considers and selects formal assessment tools for their intended purpose.
- Uses or advocates for assessment tools with documented evidence of reliability, validity, and fairness for decision-making.
- Demonstrates basic skills for conventional assessment, including calculating chronological age, adjusting for prematurity, establishing basals and ceilings, and interpreting reports.
- Implements recommended practices for formal assessment with multilingual learners, including gathering information on acculturation, matching assessor with child when possible, evaluating conceptual knowledge in all languages used by the child, and including family input.