Authentic Assessment as “Best Practice” for Early Childhood Intervention

Abstract

The early childhood professionals recognize the limitations of conventional testing with young children. This recognition has given rise to Authentic Assessment, now recognized officially as best practice by the major professional organizations. However, no national studies have been conducted to document the comparative qualities of either authentic or conventional approaches—according to meaningful external standards. Based on a national Internet survey of professionals, we report details of a social validity study of common measurement methods on eight operationally defined standards for developmentally appropriate assessment linked to professionally sanctioned practice standards and indicators. Approximately 1,500 professional responses reveal higher quality appraisals for authentic assessment over conventional testing methods for early childhood intervention purposes. Based on these results, we offer recommendations to advance valid, sensible, and contextually appropriate assessment for early childhood intervention.

The Efficacy of Arabic Version of the Developmental Assessment of Young Children Second Edition (DAYC-2) Scale in Detecting Developmental Delay among Jordanian Children Aged Birth to 71 Months

“…Its importance has been derived from its strong relation to cognitive and social skills development and also from its ability to predict academic outcomes in the future such as the ability of child's language repertoire at school entry to predict reading skills later on (Snow & Hemel, 2000;Bagnato, 2007).…”

“…It also includes understanding, recalling, comparing, and sorting information (Bagnato, 2007). Assessing Cognitive skills is different from assessing other domains as they are not assessed by direct observation as they are assessed through evaluating responses and behaviors that indicate development of skills and concepts.…”

“…Social-emotional developmental domain entails an inextricable interrelated dimensions including attachment, behavioral style, personal identity, self-regulation, and social and object play (Bagnato, 2007). Assessing this developmental area is crucial as studies confirm that its development during the first five years offers a view of the psychological growth of the young child (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000).…”

Parental Perceptions about Children’s Authentic Assessment and the Work Sampling System’s implementation

“…Decades of research on the assessment of the child have evidenced that alternative forms of assessment are the most powerful tools as authentic exhibits of improved developmental pathways and learning outcomes of preschool children in all areas of learning suggested by the kindergarten curriculum (Gullo, 2005;Bagnato, 2007;Snow & Van Hemel, 2008;Losardo & Notari-Syverson, 2011;Fiore, 2012;Frey, Schmitt, & Allen, 2012). …”

Early Childhood Education Pre-Service Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Teaching Psychosocial Skills Across the Kindergarten Curriculum in Ghana

“…More so, making assessment meaningful for children involves using tools that are appropriate for the child to use (Copple & Bredekamp, 2006). This includes measures which allow for the full range of children's competencies to be recorded in a natural environment (Bagnato, 2007). This is what Zumwalt (2012) calls authentic assessment.…”