Early Childhood Assessment Why, What, and How (2008) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
5 Assessing Learning and Development
5 Assessing Learning and Development
Pages 85-144
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From page 85... ...
. Many of the assessments widely in use in educational settings are designed primarily to inform instruction by helping classroom personnel specify how children are learning and developing and where they could usefully adapt and adjust their instructional approaches.
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From page 86... ...
Children being educated or cared for in groups are expected to be able to regulate their emotions and attention; to form social relationships with peers and with non familial adults; to learn from observation, participation, and direct instruction; and increasingly to direct their own learning. All these capacities are crucial if children are going to function well in preschool and child care or in K-12 programs, and promoting these capacities is also a primary goal of adults in group care and educational settings.
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From page 87... ...
We then describe some of the assessment approaches and tools that have been widely used to reflect status or progress in that domain. Appendix Tables 5-1 through 5-7 provide a summary listing of the major instruments discussed here, with a table for each domain.
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From page 88... ...
as part of early childhood assessment in care and education settings is clearly merited.
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From page 89... ...
Importance in Practice and Policy Although there is a lack of agreement as to how this domain should be subdivided, there is substantial agreement on the importance of the social and emotional development of young children to those working directly with them before and after the transition to formal schooling. In addition, a number of state consensus documents defining what young children should know and be able to do include a strong focus on their social and emotional skills, reflecting a recognition of the importance of this domain among policy makers as well.
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From page 90... ...
Importance for Later Development The social and emotional demands of formal schooling on young children differ from those of early childhood settings, and children's skills in this area at school entry are predictors of how well they make the adjustment to the new setting and progress academically (see Bierman and Erath, 2006; Campbell, 2006; Ladd, Herald, and Kochel, 2006; Mashburn and Pianta, 2006; Raver, 2002; Thompson and Raikes, 2007; Vandell, Nenide, and Van Winkle, 2006)
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From page 91... ...
The domains of socioemotional development and executive function -- the cognitive processes used in response to novel stimuli -- are of central importance in early childhood, although a final decision about exactly which subskills in this area are most important to measure and most predictive would be somewhat speculative at this point. Nonetheless, providing a full picture of a young child's development or of the impact of a care and educational setting requires attending at least to the measurement of social competence, attention regulation, and behavior problems.
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From page 92... ...
. Socioemotional development is of importance during the early childhood period because it relates to children's capacities to form relationships, both trusting relationships with adults and friendships with peers, and these relationships in turn seem to be related to the speed of learning in early care and educational settings.
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From page 93... ...
They found that early measures of achievement were strong predictors of later academic achievement, that measures of attention were moderately strong predictors of later achievement, but that measures of early social and emotional development, gleaned from parent and teacher reports, showed no or almost no predictive relationship to later achievement. The findings of this important study clearly differ from those of the reviews and findings summarized earlier.
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Results showed significant improvements in direct assessments of children's executive function. By the end of the school year, children in classrooms
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Another measurement challenge is the heavy reliance in this domain on teacher and parent reports. In development are direct assessments of children's behavioral self-regulation (Emotion Matters II Direct assessments developed by Raver and modeled after work by Kochanska and colleagues)
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. Available Measures Existing measures of socioemotional development address two large groups of constructs: socioemotional functioning and self-regulation.
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. Such behaviors are viewed as an essential component of school readiness (National Education Goals Panel, 1997; U.S.
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From page 98... ...
Learning behaviors, such as persistence and attention in the classroom, have been shown to be related to specific academic skills in early childhood, such as early mathematics and literacy skills, across a number of studies (Fantuzzo, Perry, and McDermott, 2004; Green and Francis, 1988; McDermott, 1984; McWayne, Fantuzzo, and McDermott, 2004) , even when measures of emotional adjustment were also considered.
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From page 99... ...
showed effects for the Vygotskian play-based preschool curriculum called Tools of the Mind (Bodrova and Leong, 2001) on aspects of children's executive functioning related both to socioemotional development and to approaches to learning, such as maintaining attention and controlling behavior.
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From page 100... ...
asks the teacher about observable learning behaviors of children ages 3- to 5½-year-olds in the classroom context. The Teacher Rating Scale, an adaptation of the Social Skills Rating Scale for the ECLS-K study, includes a scale measuring approaches to learning for 5-year-olds, including items asking about engagement in learning, organization, creativity, and adaptability.
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From page 101... ...
, and the use of direct assessments (e.g., Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test -- Dunn and Dunn, 2007; Woodcock-Johnson, Schrank, Mather, and Woodcock, 2006; Expressive One-Word Vocabulary Test -- Gardner and Brownell, 2000)
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From page 102... ...
For these purposes, direct assessments, such as the TOLD-P:3, the TELD-3, or the Preschool Language Assessment (PLA) are needed (Blank, Rose, and Berlin, 1978; Hammill and Newcomer, 1997; Hresko, Reid, and Hammill, 1999)
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From page 103... ...
. Some have argued that early reading outcomes are better predicted by the emergent literacy skills of letter recognition and phonological awareness (Schatschneider et al., 2004)
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. Evidence of Malleability Language and emergent literacy skills are prime targets of most early childhood programs, and in particular of programs designed to serve children from low-income or non-Englishspeaking families.
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From page 105... ...
Yet testing children only in English if they are growing up bilingual clearly threatens to vastly underrepresent their language capacities. One promising approach that has been funded by the Head Start University Partnership Measurement Development Grants Program involves eliciting reports on the Bates-MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory from mothers about the home language and from classroom personnel about English; teacher reports add crucial information about these children's language skills (Pan, Mancilla-Martinez, and Vagh, 2008)
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From page 106... ...
Many are listed in Appendix Table 5-4. The domains of vocabulary and p honological awareness have been the most richly populated with formal tests, although indices, report forms, and assessments for other domains exist as well.
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From page 107... ...
We recognize and endorse the growing attention to the need to teach science, social studies, and the arts in early childhood in addition to the traditional domains of language, literacy, and mathematics; see, for example, the National Child Care Information Center website, which provides links to many resources for teaching science and social studies (http://www.nccic.org/ poptopics/mathscience.html)
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From page 108... ...
, the cognitive processes involved in executive function include the ability to hold information in mind in working memory, inhibit incorrect responses, and sustain or switch attention for the purposes of goal-directed action.
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From page 109... ...
. Executive function consists of distinct but moderately interrelated cognitive functions, including working memory, inhibitory control, and attention shifting components (Espy et al., 1999, 2004; MacDonald et al., 2000; Miyake et al., 2000; Robbins, 1996)
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From page 110... ...
. Measures of effortful control, inhibitory control, and attention-shifting in preschool predicted mathematical and literacy skills in kindergarten in a study of Head Start children.
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From page 111... ...
The A becedarian Project, a single-site experimental intervention that delivered 5 years of full-time quality child care, yielded effect sizes of d = .50 at 18 months, d = .83 at 24 months, d = 1.23 at 36 months, and d = .73 at 54 months on standardized infant developmental or IQ tests (note that the reduction in effect sizes between ages 3 and 5 appears to be related to the fact that control children were attending quality child care centers) (Burchinal, Lee, and Ramey, 1989)
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From page 112... ...
Similarly, many measures of specific cognitive skills were developed using middle-class white children but have been used recently in studies in Head Start classrooms or other programs serving low-income, ethnically diverse children. There is growing attention to the psychometric properties of these measures as the research moves away from documenting normative development to examining individual differences (Blair and Razza, 2007)
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From page 113... ...
, listing tasks appropriate for toddlers and preschoolers. Perhaps the most widely used measures include the continuous performance task, shape Stroop, snack delay, day/night, and Simon says (note that these are also used as measures of constructs defined under socioemotional development, again pointing out the porous boundaries between emotional and cognitive development)
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From page 114... ...
. Following initial acquisition of counting, children begin to acquire an understanding of number operations (Clements, 2004; Hiebert et al., 1997; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000; National Research Council, 2001)
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From page 115... ...
Sorting, classifying, and working with patterns help them to bring order, organization, and predictability to their world. Classification and the analysis of patterns provide a foundation for algebraic thinking as children develop the ability to recognize relationships, form generalizations, and see the connections between common underlying structures (Clements, 2004; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000)
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From page 116... ...
. And recent analyses of longitudinal studies have shown that mathematical concepts, such as knowledge of numbers and ordinality, at school entry are the strongest predictors of later academic achievement, even stronger than early literacy skills (Duncan et al., 2007)
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ASSESSING LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT 117 ways, with objects that can be manipulated and questions requiring verbal explanations. Available Measures Each of the domains in mathematics discussed above has measures associated with it, although of varying quality and degrees of development.
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Appendix Table 5-6 lists some of these measures as examples, and we give examples of tools that are useful for formative and summative evaluations of young children. Assessments are embedded in curricula, like Everyday Mathematics, providing tools for the teacher to monitor each child's progress.
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From page 119... ...
studied the Work Sampling for Head Start (WSHS) measure, derived from the Work Sampling System, which has observers complete a checklist of children's demonstrated capabilities.
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From page 120... ...
Denver II Well-being Indices of Obesity Nutrition Toddler-Parent Mealtime Toddler-Parent Mealtime Behavior Questionnaire Observation Motor control NEPSY Games as Measurement Bayley Scales of Infant for Early Self-Control Development (BSID)
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, Third ed., Behavioral Rating Scale (BRS) Play and leisure Vineland Social-Emotional time Early Childhood Scales (SEEC)
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From page 122... ...
Social skills Social Skills Rating Scale The Work Sampling Social Skills Rating Scale (SSRS) System (WSS)
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From page 123... ...
Fatigue/ Clinical Evaluation of boredom/ Language Fundamentals frustration (CELF) -Preschool Behavioral Observation Checklist Social-emotional Creative Curriculum Creative Curriculum development Development Continuum Development Continuum for Ages 3-5 for Ages 3-5 Social The Galileo System The Galileo System development for the Electronic for the Electronic Management of Learning Management of Learning (Galileo)
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(COR) Personal The Work Sampling The Work Sampling and social System (WSS)
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From page 125... ...
Protective Devereux Early factors scale Childhood Assessment (DECA) Behavioral Devereux Early concern Childhood Assessment (DECA)
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From page 126... ...
, Preschool Ed. Peer social Social Competence and interactions Behavioral Evaluation scales (SCBE)
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From page 127... ...
Externalizing Social Competence and problems Behavioral Evaluation (SCBE) , Preschool Ed.
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From page 128... ...
Executive NEPSY Tower of Hanoi functioning Inhibitory control NEPSY, CPT Emotion regulation Delay-of-Gratification Task Academic mastery Adapted EZ-Yale motivation Personality/Motivation Questionnaire (Adapted EZPQ) Engagement in ECLS-K Adaptation of the learning Social Skills Rating Scale (SSRS)
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From page 129... ...
Orientation/ Bayley Scales of Infant engagement Development (BSID) , Third ed., Behavioral Rating Scale (BRS)
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From page 130... ...
Sustained Games as Measurement for attention Early Self-Control (GAMES) Memory and NEPSY learning Sequential Kaufman Assessment processing Battery for Children (K-ABC)
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Achievement Kaufman Assessment scale Battery for Children (K-ABC) Woodcock-Johnson III (WJ-III)
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From page 132... ...
-Preschool Behavioral Observation Checklist Phonological Woodcock-Johnson III awareness (WJ-III) Cognitive Creative Curriculum Creative Curriculum development Development Continuum Development Continuum for Ages 3-5 for Ages 3-5 Early cognitive The Galileo System for the The Galileo System for the development Electronic Management of Electronic Management of Learning (Galileo)
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From page 133... ...
Colors Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Revised (BBCS-R) Performance IQ Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Third ed.
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From page 134... ...
Shapes Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Revised (BBCS-R) Direction/position Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Revised (BBCS-R)
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Observation Record (COR) Social studies The Work Sampling System The Work Sampling System (WSS)
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Science Woodcock-Johnson III Work Sampling Plans, (WJ-III) , Peabody Individual Portfolio, Summative Achievement Test (PIAT)
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reasoning Early The Galileo System for the The Galileo System for the mathematics Electronic Management of Electronic Management of Learning (Galileo) Learning (Galileo)
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(WSS) Scientific thinking The Work Sampling System The Work Sampling System (WSS)
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(WSS) General language Clinical Evaluation of Creative Curriculum Creative Curriculum Language Fundamentals Development Continuum Development Continuum (CELF)
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Grammar Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation (DELV) Literacy Test of Early Reading Ability Work Sampling Plans, (TERA)
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Letters Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Revised (BBCS-R) Verbal IQ Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Third ed.
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Recall ability Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) , Expressive Vocabulary Subtest Verbal Kaufman Assessment expression Battery for Children (K-ABC)
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From page 143... ...
(DIBELS) Letter naming Dynamic Indicators of Basic fluency Early Literacy Skills, Sixth ed.
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(DIBELS) Oral reading Dynamic Indicators of Basic fluency and retell Early Literacy Skills, Sixth fluency ed.
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