This past Wednesday, I attended the last day of a three day workshop at the Central New York/Oswego County Teacher Center. The workshop was designed for pre-kindergarten teachers to discuss lesson development and assessment strategies that can be implemented specifically in the pre-kindergarten classroom. With the book, Common Formative Assessment: A Toolkit for Professional Learning Communities at Work by Kim Bailey and Chris Jakicic guiding our discussion, each pre-k teacher present at the workshop was given the opportunity to share and learn the similarities and differences among the types of assessments used in varying school districts and early childhood programs in the surrounding area.
Since I started my position as a pre-kindergarten teacher six years ago, I have questioned and continue to question the amount of time spent on formally assessing my three to five year old students, specifically when they are only in my classroom for two and a half hours at a time. It was reassuring for me to hear that many school districts and programs administer similar benchmark assessments throughout the school year, as well as conduct similar formative assessments throughout the school day and week. However, while I administer benchmark assessments with my students three times a year (beginning, middle, and end of year), I discovered that other school districts and programs only administer these assessments twice a year (beginning and end of year). I understand that each school district and program has their own plan established regarding the timeline of when assessments should be completed, and this often is based upon the schedule created by the publisher, which is the case for me.
I am interested in learning though if any research has been done regarding appropriate methods for assessing our youngest learners; common methods that could be implemented in every pre-kindergarten classroom, and methods that do not take away from the invaluable teacher-directed and student-directed instruction and learning time. I will post any information that I find on this topic, but I ask if you already know of any current research on this topic that you would like to share?
I am also interested in hearing how often and what types of assessments are administered across the country. How do you assess pre-kindergarten students in your school district or program?
