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The
general public has become aware of the importance of the early years
of a child’s development. Parents, funding agencies, and taxpayers
want to be assured that children are progressing well and that early
childhood programs are doing a good job in helping children learn.
Consequently, there is increased pressure to assess young children’s
development to determine whether individual children are learning
and to hold programs accountable for children’s learning.
Assessment is the continual process of collecting information to measure
the level of performance of a child or group of children. Observation
of children during on-going classroom activities is an informal form
of assessment. Testing is a formal form of assessment in which specific
tasks are set up to measure performance and for which a distinction
is made between a correct and an incorrect response. Often the observations
of a child by parents and staff provide the best assessment of that
child.
Michigan Association for the Education
of Young Children (MiAEYC) supports using appropriate assessment with
young children to track
development and to help the teachers plan for each child’s learning.
We believe that:
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Assessment
of young children is important to plan for their individual
learning and development. |
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Staff
and families should be knowledgeable about assessment. |
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Children
are assessed for different purposes, and the type of assessment
must fit the purpose. |
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Appropriate
assessment is used: |
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• to
help children develop physically, socially, emotionally and
intellectually
• to detect developmental delays or special needs
• to enhance teaching to improve children’s learning
• as an essential part of program evaluation and improvement
• to inform parents of progress and concerns
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Assessment
is an ongoing and continuous process. |
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In
high quality programs, adults use information from a variety
of sources to plan for and make decisions about individual children. |
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Effective
assessment instruments and procedures meet technical standards
for validity, reliability, and cultural responsiveness, and
are used for the purpose for which they were designed. |
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Appropriate
assessment instruments allow responses typical for the age,
gender, cultural background and geographic location of the children
in the group. |
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Young
children must be assessed individually by adults they know in
realistic settings and situations that reflect children’s
actual performance. |
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Inappropriate
assessment can be harmful to young children. |
Michigan Association for the Educaiton
of Young Children
4572 S. Hagadorn Rd, Suite 1D
East Lansing, MI 48823
800-336-6424
www.MiAEYC.org
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