Home

The Importance of Assessment in Early Childhood Education

 Why is assessment important?

Assessment allows the instructor to determine if the students are meeting the goals in education.

Assessment can affect a student s learning in numerous areas…

  • Grade Decisions
  • Placement 
  • Advancement 
  • Instructional Needs
  • Curriculum 
  • Funding 

Students in schools should be learning the basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills. Students should also learn skills to help them survive in society.  The world is always changing and the assessments given to children should help them

  • Think critically 
  • Anaylze 
  • Make inferences 

When teachers use assessments in their classrooms they need to know the purpose for using this assessment and also make sure the content of the assessment meets the purpose intended by this assessment. 

 

Things to consider about assessment:

  • A single assessment is not enough. 
  • Variety of assessments methods provides a whole picture of the students learning and development through different perspectives.
  • Assessment should be beneficial to the child and improve the child’s learning
  • Involve the student and the family in assessment

An assessment should 

  1. Set clear expectations
  2. Have a reasonable workload
  3. Provide students with opportunities to
  • Self monitor
  • Rehearse
  • Practice
  • Give feedback

Assessments objectives 

  • Encourages and guides effective approaches to learning
  • The expected learning outcomes are measured in validity and reliability
  • Assessment defines and protects academic standards  

 

How do teachers make assessments valuable to students?

  1. Make the students aware of the outcome. When students are aware of the outcome they will work harder to achieve it.
  2. Present the students with real life situations where they will take the information seriously
  3. Provide students with a choice in the way the assessments are set up 

  

Principals and Best Practices for Early Childhood Assessments

 

Sources:

Core principles of effective assessment. (n.d.). Assessing Student Learning. Retrieved June 24, 2014, from http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/assessingle 

Why Is Assessment Important?. (n.d.).Edutopia. Retrieved June 22, 2014, from http://www.edutopia.org/assessment-guide-importance

Wortham, S. C. (2008). Assessment in early childhood education (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall.

Emily Hobbs- summer 2014