Video summary

What is Assessment in Early Childhood Education?

Main summary

Key takeaways

Educational

Main ideas, concepts, and lessons

1) What “assessment” means in early childhood education

  • Assessment is the process of observing, recording, and documenting what children do and how they do it.
  • This documentation is used as a basis for educational decisions, such as:
    • Planning instruction/placement
    • Parent-teacher conferences

2) How assessment differs from related terms

  • Evaluation
    • A broader process that involves gathering information and then making a judgment call.
    • It depends on information coming from assessment/measurement.
  • Measurement
    • Involves observing/testing (or other means) to determine an individual’s traits/behaviors.
    • Produces a number rating score or label.

3) “Assessment for learning” (what it’s for)

  • Assessment for learning means making informed diagnostic judgments about children.
  • Purpose: decide what to do next, what to plan, or what to teach next.
  • Requires the teacher to collect information using different methods.
  • Emphasizes that it takes time and careful thought.

4) Profiling and sampling (part of assessment for learning)

  • Profiling
    • Collect as much information as possible about the child.
  • Sampling
    • Collect samples of the child’s work over time showing:
      • progress
      • achievement at different developmental stages

The assessment cycle (methodology/instructional flow)

The process is described as cyclical rather than “evidence gathering and done.”

Cycle steps:

  1. Teacher gathers evidence of student performance/learning.
  2. Evidence is used to:
    • Provide feedback to the student
    • Help the teacher reflect on upcoming plans and lessons
  3. Teacher continues instruction and may gather more evidence during teaching.
  4. Students perform, enabling further evidence collection.
  5. Students receive teacher feedback.
  6. Students reflect on the feedback and may modify behavior/performance.
  7. This supports learning, and the cycle repeats continuously.

Main types of assessment

A) Formal assessment

  • Formal assessment
    • Based on empirical data
    • Designed by test and assessment instrument developers

1) Norm-referenced tests (formal)

  • Compare test-takers against a hypothetical average student.
  • Determined by comparing scores to a statistically selected group (often same age/grade) who previously took the test.
  • Key limitation:
    • Cannot measure learning achievement/progress of the whole group—only relative performance of individuals within a group.
  • Designed to rank students on a bell curve (distribution):
    • Typically results: some high performers, most average, some low performers.

2) Criterion-referenced tests (formal)

  • Measure performance against a fixed set of standards/criteria.
  • Students compared to levels of expected performance on a particular task.
  • Often based on:
    • Number of correct answers and/or
    • percentage of total possible correct answers
  • Intended use:
    • Better suited to assessing whole group performance against criteria/standards.
  • Test design approach:
    • Questions/items are selected depending on the cognitive ability level being assessed.

B) Informal assessment

  • Informal assessment
    • Designed/developed by the teacher (not test developers)
    • Used to:
      • Inform planning and teaching
      • Gauge how much students learned about the learning objectives
  • Typically low-stakes, compared with formal assessments used for high-stakes decisions (e.g., admission/placement/tracking).

Common examples of informal assessments listed

  • Observations
    • Spontaneous observations
    • Focused observations
  • Anecdotal records
  • Observational records
  • Checklists (to see whether behaviors/skills were achieved)
  • Rating scales
  • Rubrics
    • Resource mentioned: Ruby Star (linked in the video)
  • Peer assessment
  • Self assessment
  • Portfolios (showcase completed work and compile informal assessment results)

Rubric use details (example methodology)

  • A rubric provides a score scale (example given: 0 to 4)
    • 0 = lowest performance
    • 4 = highest performance
  • Rubric includes:
    • A description of the expected behavior for each score level
    • This helps teachers assign scores accurately based on observed performance.
  • A comic example illustrates common frustrations with grading using rubrics.

Assessing students in different modalities (instructional lesson)

  • Teachers should assess in many different ways because no single modality fits all learners and content.
  • Examples of assessment modes described:
    • Group/partner work
    • Projects
    • Drawings
    • Experiments
    • Speech/oral talk
    • Movement, dance, gestures
    • Music/drama enactment
    • Sculpture, photography
    • Reading and writing
  • Key principle:
    • Assess knowledge through students’ strengths (e.g., if strength is oral expression, allow demonstration through oral presentation rather than requiring only written answers).

Additional assessment categorizations mentioned

  • Authentic assessment
    • Focused on real-life activities students can do in and outside the classroom.
  • Performance-based assessment
    • Skill- and action-based: students must perform and demonstrate they know how to use a skill.
  • Formative assessment
    • Used during learning to gather evidence of progress toward objectives.
    • Supports adjusting/tweaking:
      • strategies
      • pedagogy
      • instruction to meet student needs
  • Summative assessment
    • A final/terminal assessment to determine students’ final accomplishments/knowledge/skills.

Issues/concerns with assessment (especially formal)

  • Fairness concerns
    • Tests may not account for differences tied to:
      • social/economic status
      • culture/background
    • Some children cannot perform as demanded by the test but may have other strengths the test doesn’t capture.
  • Misuse of results
    • Confusing language needs/low proficiency in speaking-listening-reading-writing with actual learning needs.
    • This can lead to unnecessary labeling and tracking into special education.

Final takeaway emphasized

  • Use the right type of assessment tool to best gauge students’ abilities and learning.
  • The video ends with a “food for thought” comic emphasizing careful selection of assessment methods.

Speakers / sources featured

  • Speaker: Dr. Jennifer Mata (host/presenter)
  • Source/reference mentioned: Ruby Star (resource for creating rubrics)

Original video