Molly Rathje

ECE370
Continuous Development of Young Children
Professor Brewer
5/5/14

When assessing young children there are quite a few different aspects that teachers need
to take into account. Teachers must first look at the group of students that they are assessing.
They must know where their children are developmentally. If a teacher has a standard
assessment they are using and have no type of differentiation their assessment will not be
effective for all students. Yet, if they use one assessment and have differentiation they have the
ability to test each child appropriately.
It is also important that teachers change their assessments along with the growth of their
students. It is beneficial to do the same test two times a year, once at the beginning and once at
the end to see growth in each child, but that does not mean that no other assessments should be
done. Teachers must tailor assessments to the growth of their students. There should not be one
set of assessments that are used each year, due to the fact that each year there are a different
group of students will differing skill sets.
Assessments should be done on a regular basis in the classroom. They should be done for
each child, not only for students who are struggling but for those who are gifted as well. It may
take more time on the part of the teacher to tailor assessments to meet all students needs but that
is the most effective way to gauge a students learning. The importance of assessment in the
classroom should not be ignored. These tools help not only the teacher but the students as well.
Teachers are required to assess by the states. Pressed by demands for greater
accountability and enhanced educational performance, states are developing standards and
creating new criteria and approaches for assessing achievement. (Shepard, Kagan, Wurtz,
1998). This requirement that is made by the states is a an important aspect of assessments.
When teachers are required to assess not only to benefit themselves, or because of the schools

requirements but because the state is holding them to it, that will only help the teachers. Some
teachers do not like to assess with standard assessments, but this only leads to a higher standard
for the students.
One of the biggest issues that teachers face when creating assessments in the classroom
of their own is that they are not efficient. Their assessments do not correlate to the lessons they
are teaching or the standards that they are trying to meet. According to an article done in 2008,
Accurately assessing individual childrens knowledge and skills is one of the most difficult, yet
most important, tasks in teaching. (Kline, 2008). This idea, that assessments should be tailored
to a childs knowledge and skills is the focus of assessments. Teachers should not assess students
based solely on their standards. They should test them with the standards in mind, yet also at
their skill level.
Teachers must take into consideration that each student learns differently. There are no
two students who will answer the same question with the same answer. If a problem is to be
solved, each child will go through a different thought process. That means the teacher needs to
pay attention to the questions they are asking and the information they are looking to get out of
each assessments.
With standardized assessments that teachers are required to give, it is important that they
take into account what normal is for each child and see if their assessments match up with their
normal classroom answers or development. Assessments are effective if they are used in the
right manner. It is up to the teacher to create, perform and find the proper use of the results.
Assessments do nothing for the teacher or students if the information is not properly put into use.

Assessments can show multiple different pieces of information to the teacher. They can
test a childs social development, emotional development, literacy development and even their
language skills. Each assessment has value of its own. The teacher must find the proper
assessments to do in order to test the child on the information that they are seeking.
Standardized assessments like the ASQ help teachers to gauge where a child is developmentally
compared to a range or test group of children at the same age level. This test is beneficial to give
students at the beginning and end of the year to see how they match up to the general group of
children at the same age range as they are. This allows the teacher to see how far a child has
come in the time they have been with the teacher.
Teachers must pay attention to the assessments that they use as well as the information
that they take from them. It does not benefit the students to assess them and then to never use
that information. The data should help the teacher understand what they need to do in their
lessons to better meet the needs of their students. The information that is gathered is often times
used for parent teacher conferences as well as when talking with the principals.
It is the job of the teacher to keep enough information on the assessments that they use
that they are able to share that with the parents. Parents need to know how their students are
doing in the class. Parents can be shown a raw score of the class as a whole, yet never should be
able to see the grades of another student in the class. This will allow them to see how their child
is doing within a group of their peers.
When talking with the principal, teachers should have assessment data on hand to show
that what they are teaching the students is in fact what they should be learning. It also helps to
show that their teaching style is effective and working well in the classroom. Principals like to

know what their teachers are doing in the classroom so that they can share with the parents that
come in the classroom how their teachers are meeting the needs of all students. Without
assessing the children the teachers could do whatever they pleased and no one would hold them
accountable.
Assessments are beneficial to all parties involved. They allow the principle to gain
knowledge of the teachers practices, and the teachers to gain knowledge of the students learning
and understanding. Overall, assessments should be done thoroughly and often. Continuous
assessment allows for better teaching of the students in and out of the classroom.
Teachers can use assessments to help parents understand how they can better work with
their children at home. They can be used to help teachers in the classroom with lesson planning.
They can be used to show consistency in the teachers lessons as well. Assessments should be
done frequently and should have valid outcomes. If the information is skewed it should be done
again in order to find the best answer.

Works Cited
Lynn S. Kline, (2008) Documentation Panel: The Making Learning Visible Project.
Journal of Early
Childhood Teacher Education 29:1, pages 70-80
Shepard, L., Kagan, S. L., & Wurtz, E. (1998). Principles and recommendations for early childhood
assessments National Education Goals Panel, 1255 22nd Street, N.W., Suite 502, Washington,
DC 20037;. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/62525360?accountid=12924