Assessment in Early Childhood Education

About our authors Sue Clar Wortham is Professor Emerita of Early Childhood and Elementary Education at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Prior to beginning a teaching career in higher education in 1979, she taught prekindergarten through 2nd grade in public schools, worked as a school district administrator and was a consultant at an education service center. She has authored numerous texts, including Early Childhood Curriculum: Developmental Bases for Learning and Teaching (5th Ed., 2010), Pearson. She coauthored Play and Child Development (4th Ed., 2012) with Joe Frost and Stuart Reifel, also published by Pearson. Organizational publications include Childhood 1892 to 2002, published by the Association for Childhood Education International and Playgrounds for Young Children: National Survey and Perspectives, coauthored with Joe Frost, published by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD). In 1992, she served as a Fulbright Scholar in Chile. She was president of the Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) from 1995 to 1997. Since retirement, she has been very active in the development of the Global Guidelines for Early Childhood Education and Care that resulted from an international symposium held in Ruschlikon, Switzerland, in 1999. Subsequently, she has a leadership role in the development, validation and implementation of the ACEI Global Guidelines Assessment adapted from the original guidelines. She edited Common Characteristics and Unique Qualities in Preschool Programs: Global Perspectives in Early Childhood Education for Springer in 2013, which reported on the use of the Global Guidelines Assessment in countries around the world. Dr. Wortham served as volunteer director of educational programs for World Children’s Relief and Volunteer Organization, a small nongovernmental organization (NGO), from 2001 to 2011. She engaged in training teachers and principals in Haiti, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone. Belinda J. Hardin is an Associate Professor Emerita in the Department of Specialized Education Services at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Dr. Hardin completed her PhD in Early Childhood, Families and Literacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to entering higher education in 2004, she was a public school kindergarten and special education teacher, a Head Start director and the Director of the Special Projects Division at Chapel Hill Training-Outreach Project. Her research includes cross-cultural studies investigating the effectiveness of services for young children with and without disabilities in the United States and other countries, particularly in Latin America. She is especially interested in measures of program quality with global applicability and how they are informed by sociocultural context. She served as the Co-Principal Investigator of 3 national studies in the United States that investigated the reliability and validity of Learning Accomplishment Profile assessment instruments, including a dual-language sample of 2,099 children (half English speakers and half Spanish speakers) to norm the Learning Accomplishment Profile-Diagnostic Edition. Additionally, Dr. Hardin completed studies investigating the referral, evaluation and placement of preschool children with disabilities who are English Language Learners and is currently developing a family report questionnaire on preschool language development in English and Spanish. Dr. Hardin has conducted research and professional development activities with professionals and Spanish-speaking families in North Carolina, Guatemala and the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. She was the Co-Principal Investigator of 3 international studies investigating the reliability and validity of the ACEI Global Guidelines Assessment in multiple countries across the world. Dr. Hardin has served on the Board of Directors for the Association of Childhood Education International and participated in 2 initiatives spearheaded by UNICEF to improve services for young children in inclusive early childhood settings worldwide.

PART I: INTRODUCTION TO ASSESSMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

An Overview of Assessment in Early Childhood
How Infants and Young Children Should Be Assessed
Communicating with Families

PART II: STANDARDIZED TESTS

How Standardized Tests Are Used, Designed, and Selected
Using and Reporting Standardized Test Results

PART III: CLASSROOM ASSESSMENTS

Data-Driven Decision Making, Assessment, and Documentation
Observation
Checklists, Rating Scales, and Rubrics
Teacher-Designed Assessment Strategies
Performance-Based Assessment Strategies
Portfolio Assessment