Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/what-does-research-on-pre-kindergarten-programs-mean-for-my-practice/5024491/
Assessment is everywhere in K-12 education today, and it is something we are hearing a lot more about in early childhood, too. The reasons to assess vary from evaluating overall program effectiveness to getting a handle on the evidence-base of a curriculum. Often individual child-based evaluation is necessary to identify whether or not a child qualifies for special education services. As early childhood professionals, we need to understand the various purposes of assessment in order to be able to determine how the information can be used. As Anson Dorrance says, “You can’t improve what you don’t measure. You can’t impact, what you don’t inspect.”
The research described in the State Prekindergarten Effects on Early Learning at Kindergarten Entry: An Analysis of Eight State Programs study by Jung in the accompanying article was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of prekindergarten programs. This kind of data is needed to inform policies and to fund effective programs. It can also help those of us working in the field to understand the various assessment purposes. For example, teachers often operate on anecdotal information because its purpose is to demonstrate children’s individual progress, which is different than the assessment information needed to evaluate programs and ...