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Assignment (ECE 203) Due in 24 hours

DUE IN 24 HOURS – 3 pages

Assessment Data to Guide Practice

As you learned from our discussion this week about informal assessments and from the required readings in the text, using informal assessments to guide curriculum planning and instructional decisions allows educators to best support children’s specific strengths and needs. As explained in the Jaruszewicz (2019) text, developmentally appropriate approaches to assessment include a comprehensive, systematic, and focused look at each and every child’s specific learning and development. In this assignment you have an opportunity to explore informal assessments further in relation to the use of data to drive the creation and delivery of those assessments.

Consider the following scenario: You are an educator that has finished collecting assessment data on a child, Anna Smith, in your program or classroom. You must now must create a curriculum plan based on

Anna Smith’s Assessment Evaluation.

To prepare for this assignment,

Review the Week 3 Instructor Guidance for additional help with this assignment.
Review Anna Smith’s Assessment Evaluation
Utilize the ECE 203 Week 3 Case Study Template to assist you with organizing this assignment

For your assignment, include the following:

Introduction (0.5 Points): Write a succinct introduction that informs the reader of the topic of the assignment and its organization. Remember, an effective essay introduction tells the reader what you will say.
Assessment Observations (3 Points): In one to two paragraphs, describe the observations that you made from the data on Anna Smith using several examples from the assessments.
Child Observations (3 Points): In three to four paragraphs, describe the strengths and areas of opportunity (i.e., weaknesses) for Anna Smith based on the assessment data.
Short-Term Goal (3 Points): In three to four paragraphs, explain three specific instructional decisions for a short-term goal for Anna Smith based on the data analysis.
Long-Term Goal (3 Points): In one to two paragraphs, explain one specific long-term goal for Anna Smith based on the data analysis.
Conclusion (0.5 Points): Write a succinct conclusion that informs the reader of the main points from the assignment. Remember, an effective essay conclusion tells the reader what you have said in a summary.

The Assessment Data to Guide Practice assignment:

Must be three to four double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages, but including the completed observation checklist) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.)’s APA Style (Links to an external site.) resource.
Must include a separate title page with the following:
Title of paper
Student’s name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted
Must use at least two scholarly sources in addition to the course text.
To assist you in completing the library research required for this assignment, view this Help! Need Article (Links to an external site.) tutorial, which can help you find a good starting place for your research.
The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
To assist you in completing the library research required for this assignment, view this Quick ‘n’ Dirty (Links to an external site.) tutorial, which introduces the Ashford University Library and the research process, and provides some library search tips.
Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.)
Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.
Review the Writing Center’s Grammarly (Links to an external site.) page before you submit your written assignment; set up a Grammarly account (if you have not already done so), and use Grammarly to review a rough draft of your assignment. Then, carefully review all issues identified by Grammarly and revise your work as needed.

Required Resources

Required Text

Jaruszewicz, C. (2019).

Curriculum and methods for early childhood educators

[Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/

Chapter 5: Curriculum as a Collaboration With Families and the Community
Chapter 12: Evaluation and Assessment of Learning and Programs

Articles

NAEYC. (2009).

Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8 (Links to an external site.)

. Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/resources/position-statements/PSDAP

This article outlines NAEYC’s stance on developmentally appropriate practices with young children, including the guidelines for developmentally appropriate practice, and will assist you in your Developmentally Appropriate Assessment discussion this week.
Accessibility Statement dos not exist.
Privacy Policy (Links to an external site.)

Web Page

Resources for Early Learning. (n.d.).

Early childhood assessment (Links to an external site.)

. Retrieved from

http://resourcesforearlylearning.org/fm/early-childhood-assessment/ (Links to an external site.)

This webpage provides information on assessment in early childhood education, including the types of assessments used and why assessment is important. This resource will assist you with your Developmentally Appropriate Assessment discussion this week.
Accessibility Statement does not exist.
Privacy Policy does not exist.

24 hours3 pages

Runninghead:

ASSESSMENT CASE STUDY

Week 3: Assessment Case Study

Your Name

ECE 203: Introduction to Curriculum and Instruction for Early Childhood Development

Instructor’s Name

Date

Hint: Delete all of these green boxes before submitting the paper to your instructor.

To delete the boxes: click on the edge of each box and press delete.

Assessment Case Study:

In this section, write a brief introduction that will allow your reader to follow the organization of your assignment and the focus of your observation.

Hint: Ctrl + Click

INTRODUCTIONS & CONCLUSIONS

for help.

Assessment Observation

In one to two paragraphs, describe the observations that you made from the data on Anna Smith using several examples from the assessments.

Child Observations

In three to four paragraphs, describe the strengths and areas of opportunity (i.e., weaknesses) for Anna Smith based on the assessment data.

Short-Term Goal

In three to four paragraphs, explain three specific instructional decisions for a short-term goal for Anna Smith based on the data analysis.

Long-Term Goal

In one to two paragraphs, explain one specific long-term goal for Anna Smith based on the data analysis.

Conclusion

Briefly summarize the ideas that you discussed in the above paragraphs and briefly explain of the significance of these ideas.

Hint: Ctrl + Click
INTRODUCTIONS & CONCLUSIONS
for help.

References

Use APA format to cite and reference at least two scholarly sources, in addition to the course textbook. Remember, you MUST include in-text citations throughout your paper to show your reader what information you used from these outside sources.

Hint: Ctrl + Click

FORMATTING YOUR REFERENCES LIST

for help.

*In the final version of your assignment, be sure that you have removed all of the hints (green boxes) within the template.

Curriculum as a Collaboration
with Families and the Community

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be able to

1. Explain the importance of a collaborative approach to working with families.

2. Summarize accepted principles, effective strategies, and typical challenges for under-
standing and working with families.

3. Explain how teachers can help families understand the current standards-driven
environment.

4. Describe ways in which teachers can help families understand the curriculum.

5. Describe how the community can be incorporated as a resource for your curriculum.

5
Pretest
1. Collaboration with families and finding

ways to involve them in the curriculum is an
important goal in early childhood education
today. T/F

2. Teachers don’t need to learn about
students’ families in order to have an
effective curriculum. T/F

3. Offering them information about learning
standards helps families understand how
the curriculum works. T/F

4. Documenting and displaying what children
do conveys a message that their work is
important. T/F

5. It is worth the effort to invite families and
members of the business and neighborhood
communities to serve as volunteers. T/F

Answers can be found at end of the chapter.
© Yellow Dog Productions / Getty Images

What Is a Collaborative Approach and Why Is It Important? Chapter 5

After completing your home visits, you realize that you now have a lot of additional informa-
tion about the families of the children who will be in your class. You know which children
have a single parent as the household head and have some information about family occupa-
tions and work schedules. You now know who lives with siblings and/or an extended family
and which children have pets. You have also identified the parents and children with limited
English proficiency, and you have some information about what steps have been taken to sup-
port the two children with special needs.

But you also have many remaining ques-
tions about how the families will respond
to you as the teacher and how to create
and sustain productive and satisfying rela-
tionships. You want the families to feel
like partners in the adventure of early
childhood education, but you also realize
that there may be many factors that could
complicate your efforts.

What can you do to learn more about the
values, traditions, hopes, and wishes of
your families? What strategies to include
them in their children’s school lives will be
most successful? How will you help them
understand the curriculum as partners in
their children’s learning? How will you
make connections between the school,
your families, and the local community?

In this chapter, we will address the very important challenge of how to construct meaning-
ful and mutually beneficial relationships with families and the community, particularly with
respect to curriculum. (Note: In this chapter, all references to interactions and communications
with families are made on the assumption that they would be conducted in or translated to
the home language as needed.)

5.1 What Is a Collaborative Approach and Why Is It
Important?
An expanding number of households have both parents working outside the home. As of
2010, the number of women in the workforce is 58.6 percent or 72 million; women are pro-
jected to account for 51 percent of the increase in total growth in the labor force between
2008 and 2018 (United States Department of Labor, n.d.). Therefore it can be challenging to
effect a significant representation of families in the affairs of programs and schools. In one
survey, approximately 58 percent of parents with students in grades K-12 did not volunteer or
serve on a committee at their child’s school; 26 percent did not attend a school or class event
(Noel, Stark, Redford, & Zukerberg, 2016).

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) states that there is
no single formula for collaboration between programs and families. However, as part of their

There are many ways for early childhood educators to
connect with families and the community, as we will dis-
cuss in this chapter.

What Is a Collaborative Approach and Why Is It Important? Chapter 5

recent Engaging Diverse Families project, they have outlined six principles that focus on com-
munication, engagement, and decision making. The principles suggest that:

1. Teachers and programs engage families in two-way communication

2. Programs implement a comprehensive program-level system of family engagement

3. Programs and teachers engage families in ways that are truly reciprocal

4. Programs provide learning activities for the home and in the community

5. Programs invite families to participate in program-level decisions and wider advocacy
efforts

6. Programs invite families to participate in decision making and goal setting for their chil-
dren (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2012)

Many years of research and well over one hundred studies on initiatives connecting families,
schools, and communities overwhelmingly attest to the value and benefits of strong, positive
connections (Fiese, Eckert, & Spagnola, 2006), not just for the children but for the parents
and teachers as well. When families are actively involved in the daily lives of their children
in school or care and they know what their children are doing during the day, children feel
more secure, have a higher sense of self-worth, and learn better. Parents can benefit from
feelings of affirmation, increased knowledge about early education and child development,
and higher self-esteem. Teachers feel supported and gain additional, relevant knowledge and
resources from working closely with families (Gestwicki, 2004).

These kinds of positive correlations with student achievement are most closely associated with
programs that feature:

• Support and respect for family values and expectations

• Attention to and observation of parent behaviors and interactions

• Promotion of parent and family participation in school activities and affairs

• Inclusion of parents in decision-
making processes that affect their
children (Weiss, Krieder, Lopez, &
Chatman, 2005)

Early Collaboration: Parent-
Teacher Associations

Like other aspects of early childhood edu-
cation, the characteristics of parent/fam-
ily involvement in schools have evolved
over a long period of time (Olsen & Fuller,
2008). In the 1800s, when schools were
primarily isolated and rural, the men in a
community typically had control over all
school matters. As more schools were
built to accommodate the population
growth that occurred with large-scale immigration, schools were located increasingly in urban
areas.

In the days of mostly rural schools, the community shared
all responsibility for the education of its children. This
photo documents the author’s great grandfather using
his tractor in 1918 to move the local one-room “Liberty”
school across the prairie to its new location.

http://www.naeyc.org/familyengagement/about

https://www.naeyc.org/resources/topics/family-engagement/principles

What Is a Collaborative Approach and Why Is It Important? Chapter 5

In response to growing concerns about social issues and the welfare of children, women—
who did not yet have the right to vote—began to organize and advocate. Alice McLellan
Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst established the National Parent-Teacher Association
(PTA) in 1897. The goals established at that time (and subsequently achieved over the follow-
ing century) were:

• The creation of kindergarten classes

• Child labor laws

• A public health service

• Hot-lunch programs

• A juvenile justice system

• Mandatory immunization

By the 1950s, parent involvement in elementary schools through PTA membership had swelled
to more than 6 million members. As many women returned to homemaking after World War
II, they became increasingly involved in their children’s schools in both volunteer support and
PTA leadership roles. Today, the PTA (https://www.pta.org/) continues as a national organiza-
tion, with the mission to “make every child’s potential a reality by engaging and empowering
families and communities to advocate for all children.”

In addition, local parent-teacher organizations, loosely referred to as PTOs, have established
a parallel network of independent groups. Most recently, federal funding for Title 1 schools
through the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act mandates that schools receiving funding should
establish parental involvement policies that focus on:

• Assisting their child’s learning

• Being actively involved in their child’s education at school

• Serving as full partners in their child’s education and being included, as appropriate,
in decision making and on advisory committees to assist in the education of their child
(National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education, 2012)

In child care centers, no such national grassroots effort took place. Public funding for child
care began during the Great Depression through the Works Progress Administration (WPA)
and with the Lanham Act of 1940, which established child care for the many women working
in factories to support the war effort (Cohen, 1996). These programs were temporary, ending
with the crises that spurred their establishment. However, federal funding for early education,
starting with Head Start, expanded the missions of programs to include a focus on families.

The Goals of a Collaborative Approach

According to the NAEYC, the goals of a collaborative approach to home/school/community
involvement should be to increase learning and reduce the achievement gap that still persists
in our society (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009). One of the core considerations of DAP is the
need to understand sociocultural family contexts as essential to developing curriculum and
experiences that are meaningful and relevant. Curriculum should be “clearly defined for, com-
municated to, and understood by all stakeholders, including families” (Copple & Bredekamp,
2009, p. 20).

Engaging the entire family, particularly fathers, is a very high priority today. As Glenn Olsen
and Mary Lou Fuller (2008, p. 11) have stated, “Educators are experts in . . . the education

https://www.pta.org/

Understanding and Collaborating with Families Chapter 5

of children, and parents are the experts on their children. However, because past experiences
have given either parents or teachers disproportionate power in the relationship, both now
have to learn to work as a team.”

5.2 Understanding and Collaborating with Families
Many collaboration approaches have been devised, implemented, and studied over the past
half-century. With shifts in priorities and technological advances, the details about how early
care and education programs connect with families continue to change and evolve. But in
general the emphasis and goals have been to promote mutually inclusive, collaborative, and
productive relationships (Gestwicki, 2004). When teachers understand the cultural context
and dynamics of families, they can use that knowledge to create opportunities and encourage
family involvement in their children’s learning.

Children with Special Needs

While all children, families, and teachers benefit from high-quality, ongoing interactions, this
dynamic might be considered absolutely essential for children with special needs. In a recent
study of nine child-care centers that serve children with disabilities (Bradley & Kibera, 2007),
the researchers learned that understanding and attention to family culture was the key to suc-
cessful inclusion. The provision of an individualized approach, ongoing communication, and
the flexibility needed to adapt to different needs depended on understanding family values
and beliefs, sociohistorical influences, and attitudes about seeking help. Therefore taking a
collaborative approach to curriculum will naturally fit in with the needs of families with chil-
dren who have special needs.

Understanding Families

Two theories in particular are helpful to teachers for understanding the families with which
they work: Uri Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological theory (introduced in Chapter 1) and fam-
ily systems theory (FST), used widely in family therapy settings (Christian, 2007; Fiese,
Eckert, & Spagnola, 2006; Grant & Ray, 2010; Hill, Stremmel, & Fu, 2007; Weiss, Kreider,
Lopez, & Chatman, 2005). Taking a family-centered approach departs from older, more tra-
ditional parent involvement models by shifting emphasis from the program to the families
(Hill, Stremmel, & Fu, 2007). Further, a family-centered approach respects families as decision
makers and culture bearers and assumes that all members of the family should benefit from
home-school collaboration.

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory
Bronfenbrenner’s theory makes particular sense as a foundation for thinking about home/
school/community relationships because it represents the child’s experience in the context of
interrelated influences. When teachers understand and apply these influences to the particu-
lar community environments in which they teach, they can use this knowledge to customize
their strategies for the development of relationships with families. Table 5.1 lists the priorities,
suggested by ecological theory, for educators who want to develop family involvement in
their programs (Weiss, Kreider, Lopez, & Chatman, 2005).

Understanding and Collaborating with Families Chapter 5

Family Systems Theory
Family systems theory describes family dynamics and provides insights about family structures.
Teachers and programs can apply their understanding of family systems to develop productive
and collaborative relationships. From a family systems perspective, educators recognize that
while the families they serve today are increasingly diverse, all have elements in common that
may be represented and operate in different ways (Christian, 2007; Grant & Ray, 2010).

Table 5.1: How Ecological Theory Plays Out in Family Involvement Programs

Sphere of Influence System Features Family Involvement Program Features

Microsystem Home and immediate
surroundings

• Develop family-focused services

• Tailor different kinds of support for moms vs. dads

• Provide teacher professional development focusing on
family systems

Mesosystem Relationships among
immediate contexts

• Reduce barriers to family participation

• Cultivate welcoming settings

• Communicate effectively

• Promote decision-making skills

• Help navigate program activities

Exosystem Links between contexts
that do and do not
include the child

• Focus on family strengths

• Identify the social supports families need

• Promote civic engagement

• Celebrate family cultures

Macrosystem Links among other
systems

• Ensure that classroom culture is informed by the
community

• Encourage familiarity with children’s lives at home

• Provide balance of individual/larger group interactions

• Embed family values and culture in classroom activities,
goals and expectations

• Self-awareness of teacher values/biases

Source: Weiss, Kreider, Lopez, & Chatman, 2005.

When teachers use strategies such as home visits, child interviews, or questionnaires, they
can acquire information for six specific areas of focus within FST about how families establish
and maintain:

1. Boundaries: Across families, the desired level of involvement with schools varies, as
families have different ideas about the lines that should be drawn between home and
school. Understanding why a family might or might not want to be involved in school
activities can help teachers make decisions about how to encourage involvement.

2. Roles: Children’s behavior and interactions at school reflect what they know about and
how they experience roles they inhabit at home. Children may emulate these roles at
school, as helpers, caretakers, peacemakers, problem solvers, or, conversely, victims or
even bullies. Teachers who work to identify positive role models among their families
can offer opportunities at school where family members can apply these skills in roles
that are already familiar to them.

Understanding and Collaborating with Families Chapter 5

3. Rules: Both families and programs have explicit
and unspoken rules that children have to inte-
grate. This will be harder when a rule at school is
very different from one at home—for example, a
child who is allowed to fight with siblings at home
but clearly not with other children in the care or
educational setting. When these discrepancies are
identified, communications can be focused on bal-
ancing what the child understands about expecta-
tions and interactions.

4. Hierarchies: The ways families make decisions, who
makes them, and who holds and wields power is
greatly influenced by diversity and circumstances.
Teachers learn, for example, which family member
assumes responsibility as primary contact.

5. Climate: Physical and emotional environments
vary widely across families and can change with
circumstances, as in the loss of a job or a signifi-
cant illness in the family. Teachers can convey sen-
sitivity and respect for a family’s need for privacy
or assistance when they identify and understand
the stresses families experience.

6. Equilibrium: Rituals, customs, and traditions pro-
vide consistency, security, and balance. Gaining
insights into the importance of these things can
be helpful to a teacher for planning activities that
represent the diversity among students’ families.

Involving Families at School

Family involvement models and approaches today aim to achieve what the Reggio Emilia edu-
cators call an “amiable school,” envisioning programs that welcome, incorporate, and reflect
everyone’s ideas—those of children, families, teachers, and community (Edwards, Gandini,
& Forman, 1998; Hill, Stremmel, & Fu, 2007). Teachers and families might take a grassroots
approach, constructing their own vision and strategies for how to promote collaboration and
involvement. Or, planning for family involvement might be done within the framework of an
established model if the teacher works in a program that uses one.

Grassroots Approach
Frameworks for collaboration with families typically include some or all of the six types of
parent involvement proposed by Joyce Epstein (2001) for the National Network of Partnership
Schools initiative:

1. Parent education: Providing information or training about topics important to parents in
structured or informal ways.

2. Communication: Understanding the ways in which parents and teachers interact with
one another and share information.

Understanding the rules that exist in a
child’s home, such as those about interact-
ing with siblings, can help a care provider
to teach the child the rules in the care
setting.

Understanding and Collaborating with Families Chapter 5

3. Volunteering: Inviting family participation at the educational setting including social
events, classroom support, clerical work, and so on.

4. Learning at home: Finding ways to involve parents in activities that support their learn-
ing at school.

5. Decision making: Inviting parent participation in all levels of decisions, from those related
to individual children to advisory councils or committees that participate in establishing
and enacting policies and initiatives.

6. Collaborating with the community: Inviting families to help the program establish
relationships with merchants, organizations, and public services such as libraries or
health centers.

Teachers and programs seek input from families about what kinds of involvement would
best serve their needs, recruit parents who might be interested in leadership roles, and work
together to develop and implement plans.

Family Involvement Models
Some programs, especially those funded by the state or federal government, or grants, estab-
lish and operate comprehensive family involvement programs with different kinds of features.
If you work in a Head Start program, for example, there are clearly defined policies about
how teachers and the program will collaborate with families. In a pilot or experimental pro-
gram such as Leaps and Bounds, the framework might be more open-ended as the program
is developed.

Table 5.2 displays a range of examples of family involvement models with a short description
of each (Gestwicki, 2004; Lim, 2008; Narvaez, Feldman, & Theriot, 2007; Rhodes, Enz, &
LaCount, 2007).

Table 5.2: Examples of Family Involvement Models

Program Description

Even Start Federally funded Title I home-based program that promotes family
literacy; GED programs, and workforce skills development (over
800 sites).

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Among mandated activities are annual informative meetings for
parents; involvement in planning, review, and improvement of schools;
opportunities for parent input/suggestions.

Head Start (3-to 5-year olds) Includes parents directly in program decision making; provides
opportunities to work with child as volunteer with career-ladder
support; planned parent activities; ongoing communication; leadership
via parent committees and policy council.

Early Head Start (infant/toddlers) Similar to Head Start but with home-based services.

Minnesota Early Childhood Family
Education Program (ECFE)

Started in the Minneapolis Public Schools in 1974 with classes and
activities for parents of children from birth to 5 years of age. Expanded
statewide and used as a model for other states to establish parent
education programs.

(continued)

http://www2.ed.gov/programs/evenstartformula/index.html

http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/overview/intro/parents/parentfacts.html

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/

http://www.ecfe.info/

https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/programs/article/head-start-programs

Helping Families Understand Curriculum, Goals, and Expectations Chapter 5

AVANCE Private nonprofit organization started by Gloria Rodriguez and the Zale
Foundation in 1973 to serve primarily Hispanic families in San Antonio;
programs as of 2012 in Texas, New Mexico, and California with part-
nerships in several other states around the country; focuses on parent
education.

PBS KIDS Lab A partnership with Chicago public schools and PBS KIDS that provide
virtual resources for children ages 3–8. Includes free online resources
developed by master teachers in English and Spanish and modeling of
high-quality activities parents can do with their children.

Barriers and Challenges
There is widespread agreement that home/school/community programs succeed only when
mutual trust is well established among those involved (Dombro & Lerner, 2005; Fiese, Eckert,
& Spagnola, 2006; Sciarra & Dorsey, 2007). Other factors are important as well. Parent edu-
cation efforts, especially literacy-focused programs, require that educators appreciate and
respect many “ways of knowing” and the life experiences of parents—a sociocultural per-
spective that doesn’t regard teachers as the only authentic source of knowledge or informa-
tion (Grant & Ray, 2010; Ordonez-Jasis & Ortiz, 2007). Involvement programs that establish
clear goals (Fiese, Eckert, & Spagnola, 2006; Ordonez-Jasis & Ortiz, 2007) and boundaries
(Christian, 2007; Sciarra & Dorsey, 2007) help create a climate for partnership and define
vision and purpose.

Educators have also learned many lessons over time about pitfalls—the factors that can chal-
lenge those working to establish relationships and create practical and meaningful family
and community-friendly activities and processes. Memories of past experiences with school,
particularly negative ones, are powerful disincentives, especially for those who might feel
marginalized to begin with by limited education or language proficiency (Gestwicki, 2004;
Grant & Ray, 2010).

Some parents who might otherwise be very interested in participating in their child’s class-
room might be limited by logistical considerations, such as access to transportation or work
schedules (Gestwicki, 2004; Grant & Ray, 2010). Other factors, such as a lack of self-confi-
dence, self-consciousness about family structures or alternative lifestyles, perceptions parents
may have about teachers’ “turf,” or cultural norms and expectations may also be present but
are even more difficult to acknowledge or recognize (Clay, 2007; Gestwicki, 2004; Grant &
Ray, 2010).

5.3 Helping Families Understand Curriculum, Goals,
and Expectations
If we want families and the community to be more involved in our children’s early education,
we need to help them understand the nature and purpose of learning standards and how they
affect the curriculum as well as the systems in place for achieving accountability to the stan-
dards. For instance, we need to explain that a curriculum standard is a statement that reflects
society’s current values about what children should know and be able to do. Families also
need to know that standards do not dictate the specific curriculum a program or school uses
but that school districts, child care, and preschool programs choose or design a curriculum

Program Description
© 2019 Bridgepoint Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Not for resale or redistribution.

Home

http://pbskids.org/lab

Helping Families Understand Curriculum, Goals, and Expectations Chapter 5

that will address and meet learning standards. Finally, families deserve to know how their
children’s growth and progress are documented with respect to standards.

Aligning (Mapping) Curriculum with Standards

Standards are written to allow educators to make decisions on behalf of each individual
child. At the local/site/classroom level, teachers should share the ways in which they interpret
the standards. Sometimes teachers do this by identifying how the curriculum connects with
specific standards or desired learning and development outcomes—a process called align-
ment or mapping. Commercially produced curricula for early childhood may include written
documentation of this process. For example, the Creative Curriculum includes documents
that connect the objectives, dimensions, and performance indicators of the program with the
specific domains and domain elements that Head Start programs are mandated to meet. Table
5.3 provides a selected example.

Table 5.3: Creative Curriculum Alignment (for 3-Year-Olds)

Head Start
Domain Element

Examples of Objectives and
Dimensions from the Creative
Curriculum for Preschool

Examples from the Creative
Curriculum for Preschool

Receptive language:
the ability to
comprehend
or understand
language

8. Listens to and understands increasingly
complex language

8a. Comprehends language

8b. Follows directions

• Mighty minute 73 “Are You Ready?”

• Intentional Teaching “My Turn at the
Microphone”

• Intentional Teaching “Introducing
New Vocabulary”

Expressive
language: the
ability to use
language

9. Uses language to express thoughts and
needs

9a. Uses an expanding expressive
vocabulary

9b. Speaks clearly

9c. Uses conventional grammar

9d. Tells about another time or place

10. Uses appropriate conversational and
other communication skills

10a. Engages in conversations

10b. Uses social rules of language

• Trees Study: Day 4, Investigation 1
(Large-group discussion and Shared
Writing, p. 34)

• Buildings Study: Day 4, Investigation
3 (Large-group discussion and Shared
Writing, p. 58)

• Intentional Teaching “Introducing
New Vocabulary”

Source: Teaching Strategies, 2012.

In classrooms that use curricula designed by individuals, parents should also have the
opportunity to know whether the curriculum is consistent with the mission and goals of
the program and the extent to which it aligns with or supports standards used in the state
or local community. Regardless of the type of curriculum, this requires that the teach-
ers and program administrators plan for and implement intentional communication about
the curriculum. Information about the selected curriculum model or approach should be
included in official program documents such as a family handbook, written curriculum
guide or overview, or program websites. Teachers can provide parents with examples of
standards that are being used in their classrooms and point out how they relate specifi-
cally to the activities that are planned for the children. Some teachers create classroom or

Helping Families Understand Curriculum, Goals, and Expectations Chapter 5

hallway displays that indicate how an activity is related to a particular standard or group
of standards.

See the annotated list of “Websites for Creating Classroom Blogs” at the end of this chap-
ter for examples of the way in which programs describe or explain their approaches to
curriculum.

Accountability: Testing and Assessment
Parents are entitled to accurate reporting designed to help them understand how the cur-
riculum is working on behalf of their children. Teachers and programs need to provide infor-
mation to families to help them understand the accountability measures in use and how that
information is specifically relevant to the curriculum and its goals/objectives.

This responsibility is complicated by many factors. In the public schools, standardized tests are
used that report results in terms of the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
Report cards are issued for schools and states, beginning with third-grade data intended
to provide information about which schools and districts are making adequate yearly
progress (AYP), with accompanying options for
parents who wish to transfer their children from
schools designated as low-performing to schools
that report higher achievement.

Although test reporting in the public schools
doesn’t officially begin until third grade, many
public and private schools feel pressure to use
standardized tests with younger children for a vari-
ety of reasons that may or may not be related to
determining progress, including:

• Determining entry-level readiness for a class
of 4-year-olds, kindergarten, or first grade

• Screening children who must meet minimal
score requirements for eligibility to charter,
magnet, or private schools

• Identification of special needs, including
giftedness

• “Coaching” to help children perform
better on standardized tests to be
administered later

These kinds of activities are described as high-
stakes testing—when the outcome of an individual child’s performance on a single measure
can have significant effects on decisions that will affect the child’s future access to educa-
tional opportunities. Often—especially in communities with high numbers of immigrant or
low-socioeconomic, undereducated families and families navigating the elementary school
choice system for the first time—parents aren’t aware of the potential implications of high-
stakes testing.

The terminology of curriculum standards can also be confusing to parents and families. While
educators use professional jargon and terms such as AYP, alignment, benchmarks, differ-
entiating instruction, and high-stakes testing, it is best to communicate with families about

Teachers, children, and families are increasingly
affected by high-stakes testing. Educators and
families can benefit from a shared understand-
ing of how external pressures and mandates
affect goals and curriculum.

Helping Families to Understand the Curriculum Chapter 5

standards-based curriculum in plain language; this helps to establish meaningful dialogue
(Grant & Ray, 2010).

Developmentally Appropriate Accountability

Assessment and communicating information about assessments is a focus in Chapter 12, but
here it is important to note that early childhood educators are mindful of the developmental
issues associated with accountability and standards. The NAEYC position statements provide
clearly articulated guidance about:

• The types of assessment that are appropriate for young children

• How programs can and should communicate, incorporate, and share assessment infor-
mation with families

• How assessments should be linked to curriculum

• How early learning standards can be developed to maintain fidelity to developmentally
sound principles about how young children learn (NAEYC/NAECS/SDE, 2002)

For early childhood programs seeking national accreditation through the NAEYC (2018),
standard 4 is devoted to the identification of criteria that programs must meet to docu-
ment that they:

• Develop and use a written assessment system that describes the purposes, procedures,
and uses of assessments and results

• Use developmentally appropriate methods aligned with curricular goals

• Are sensitive to and informed by family culture and home language

• Use the information gathered to plan and modify the curriculum

• Include information from families to inform the assessment process

• Provide regular opportunities for two-way communication with families about chil-
dren’s progress

5.4 Helping Families to Understand the Curriculum
As you begin to develop reciprocal relationships with families, you will want to share infor-
mation about developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) with regard to curriculum; this will
provide a foundation for further discussion (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009; Gestwicki, 2011).

For example, programs and teachers can:

• Include a statement in promotional or informational materials that curriculum for
young children is based on research about child development and is designed to com-
plement and support how they learn best.

• Invite parents to tour the classroom, emphasizing features that reflect DAP, such as
displays at the child’s eye level, carefully organized and labeled materials that promote
independence, and a variety of materials that appeal to children in different ways.

• Provide resource information about DAP in a notebook or parent library.

• Post information in the classroom about developmental characteristics relevant to the
age of the children in the group.

Helping Families to Understand the Curriculum Chapter 5

• Create and display printed labels for classroom centers that briefly describe how activi-
ties promote development in different ways.

• Include a statement on interest inventories or family questionnaires that information
gathered is used to construct goals and make decisions about curricular activities.

• Establish a communications notebook or log that goes back and forth between home
and school.

• In parent-teacher conferences, describe a specific example of a decision you made that
was based on an observation about each child’s development (Seplocha, 2007).

• Enlist parents’ support and input to establish learning and social/emotional goals for
individual children (Kaczmarek, 2007).

In short, building relationships with families should include the use of multiple strategies that
clearly communicate the importance of knowledge about child development as the founda-
tion for learning. By sharing information about how children learn, one creates a logical con-
text for providing visual documentation about what they are learning.

The Power of Documentation

Making the curriculum visible in the classroom and other appropriate areas of the school
sends a powerful message to all—children, families, and community—that what young chil-
dren learn and do is important. As mentioned in Chapter 2, visual documentation of learning
is a concept associated with and highly developed in the Reggio Emilia programs (Edwards,
Gandini, & Forman, 1998). Essentially, Reggio Emilia teachers construct displays that recount
what and how children learn during long-term project work. The displays include images,
scripts of children’s words, teacher reflections, and examples of children’s work. They focus on
how a project was initiated and how the children think about what occurred over time. Judy
Helm (2007) describes this process for American teachers as “windows on learning.”

The use of visual documentation does not need to be restricted only to those programs that
use an emergent curriculum or long-term project work. From a practical perspective, making
curricular activities visible to others can be a powerful communications strategy in any early
childhood setting. Visual documentation helps visitors understand the curriculum and inspires
confidence that you are teaching from a developmental perspective, meeting children’s indi-
vidual needs, and meeting learning standards and/or program outcomes.

Reggio Emilia-style documentation was originally constructed on panels—display boards that
included cut-and-pasted photographs and text accompanied by displays of two-dimensional
work or pictures of three-dimensional work. More recently, selected projects have been pub-
lished by Reggio Emilia in book form, including The Theater Curtain (2002); Reggio Tutti: A
Guide to the City by the Children (2000); Everything Has a Shadow Except Ants (1999); The
Future Is a Lovely Day (2001); and Dialogues with Places (2008).

Using Technologies for Documentation and Communication

With advances in user-friendly technologies, teachers now have at their disposal many options
for creating documentation (Berson & Berson, 2010). Many tools are currently available that
can serve to streamline the process and help families feel a part of the daily learning experi-
ences of their children.

Helping Families to Understand the Curriculum Chapter 5

Certainly the digital camera and cell phone have revolutionized the way in which teachers
capture the essence of classroom activities. The ability to take, store, edit, print, and insert
images in a variety of applications suggests many possibilities for sharing the curriculum with
families. Teachers can also scan children’s two-dimensional work.

But pictures alone don’t tell the whole story. Consider Figure 5.1. The image depicts a block
structure built by children. Without a description, it could be interpreted in any number of
ways. When the teacher adds a simple printed description to the figure (label A), more infor-
mation is conveyed. Further expanding the label to include a short reflective statement about
what the image represents (label B) connects the activity with the curriculum in a way that is
meaningful. Label C fully describes the learning represented in the photo as well as the skills
and knowledge the children used.

By posting captioned photographs, teachers can give families a glimpse into the everyday lives
of their young children at school or in child care. Extended documentation of children’s work
and play over time goes even further, showing how the curriculum supports children’s inter-
ests, development, and holistic learning. Feature Box 5.1 tells the story of how two teachers
used a blog to document a curriculum study with a group of 5- and 6-year-olds.

Teachers can now use many forms of technology to connect families with the classroom
and the curriculum (Grant & Ray, 2010). Ebooks, like the one you’re reading now, show how

Label A
Children in the 4/5K class worked in the
block center this morning.

Label B
This 4-story block tower represents a zoo. It
was constructed during the work cycle
period over two days by three kindergarten
children.

Label C
Three kindergarteners who have been
developing their skills in the block center all
year demonstrate their knowledge of
balance, symmetry and classification in this
4-story construction. These are major math
concepts included in the kindergarten math
standards. The children solved several
structural problems as they worked over
two days to complete the tower. The
decision to add animals and people was
made after the 4 levels were complete, but
before the enclosing pieces were placed. At
one point, they posted a sign that said, “wrk
n prgrs.” After they decided to add animals,
the children carefully counted out pairs of
identical animals, sorting them by size and
type, putting animals from like habitats
together.

Figure 5.1: Labeling

Labels A, B, and C represent three increasingly informative levels of description that complement
the visual depiction of a classroom activity.

Helping Families to Understand the Curriculum Chapter 5

Blogging

Two teachers, Mary and Jane, embarked on a month-long field-based investigation of the city parks
in their community. The parks were all within walking distance of the child development center and
easily accessible via public transportation. Family members were invited to participate in the planned
excursions, but the teachers realized that not everyone would be able to do so.

Jane and Mary wanted all parents to feel that they were involved with this project, so they used a
free online service to set up a password-protected classroom blog. For parents without computer
access, daily pages were printed and kept in a notebook at the classroom sign-in area. Parents
could review them as desired at dropoff or pickup times. The teachers posted photographs and
daily entries dictated by the
children. They scanned and
uploaded children’s drawings
and excerpts from their journals
to the blog.

The blog also included teacher
reflections, copies of articles
they had read that informed
their planning, and links to
online resources they had used
to develop and conduct the
study. Other artifacts from their
work, such as organizational
charts and brainstorming lists
that were too big to scan, were
displayed in the classroom and
photographed to upload to
the blog. Figure 5.2 includes a
sample entry from the blog.

▶ Stop and Reflect
1. Since a blog represents an

online forum for sharing
ideas or experiences with
others and may be interac-
tive, it has many potential
applications. Can you think
of a way you might use a
blog in your classroom or
care setting?

2. Do you think there might be
potential privacy issues asso-
ciated with blogging about
the children in your care or
classroom? How might such
issues be addressed?

The first week of Summer
we showed the children some
maps and talked to them
about “birds-eye-view.” We
looked at maps we had picked
up on a field trip to the
Visitor’s Center and also at
Google maps and Google
earth. We asked the children
to draw their own “birds-
eye-view” maps. You will

Septermber 21, 2012 4/5K class blog

The Park Project Blog

Bird’s Eye View
by The Butterfly Class

Name

Question/Comment

notice that the children
generally combine birds-eye-
view and side view. They
draw their beds and other
things they have seen from
above as birds-eye-view and
they draw everything else
from a side view. We really
enjoyed looking at these maps.

About Our Classroom Meet the Teachers Photo Gallery Upcoming Events Archives

September

Upcoming Events

1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Figure 5.2: Blog Entry

In this blog entry from the first week of the study, a few of
the children went with one of the teachers on a test run
of the bus system to get maps from the City Visitor Center.
Many of the subsequent posts were dictated by children to
the teacher.

Helping Families to Understand the Curriculum Chapter 5

technology is expanding our ability to provide remote access to learning materials. Of course
teachers must follow school or program policies to protect privacy and restrict public access
to online applications. Some programs are also creating policies regarding family and staff use
of social networking sites (National Coalition of Campus Child Development Centers Listserve
Communications, March, 2012).

The level of technological support will likely vary by setting. But to the extent that such appli-
cations are available, any or all of the following can be used to link home and school:

Septermber 21, 2012 3-year-old class newsletter

Sunflower Gazette

In the classroom: Moon Rocks and Astronauts

Student of the Week:
David

What is your favorite food? “Pizza”
What is your favorite color? “Orange”

Who is in your family? “Mommy and Daddy
and big sister and me”

What is your favorite book? “The Hungry Caterpillar”

As you may have guessed, we are now studying outer
space! After many weeks of the children pretending
they were on a trip to the moon while pushing them on
the tire swings, we realized the interest wasn’t going
away. A few of our students even knew the names of
the planets; naturally, everyone started taking a great
interest. We have been doing many fun space related
activities.

Mini Rockets: Each child
created a miniature rocket out
of a toilet paper tube and film
canister. They decorated
these, and will launch them
for our grand finale of space
after spring break!

Moon Cake: We enjoyed a
delicious snack of “moon
cake” on Thursday. It was
mentioned in a book we read
about a bear who woke up in
hibernation surrounded by
snow and thought he was on
the moon! He ate “moon cake”
there as well.

Why Does the Moon
Change Shape?

The Sunflower astronauts
helped us create their own
class rocket ship for imagi-
nary trips to the moon!
The astronauts are learn-
ing to count down from 5,
play a space board game to
enhance 1:1 counting and
numeral recognition, and
have learned the four
phases of the moon.

Se
e w

ha
t w

e’v
e b

ee
n

re
ad

in
g!

Figure 5.3: Newsletter

Many teachers publish a newsletter—daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly—with user-friendly soft-
ware programs. This is a sample newsletter, the Sunflower Gazette, about a 3-year-old class.

Helping Families to Understand the Curriculum Chapter 5

• Newsletters (see example in Figure 5.3) can include descriptions of activities; features
on children, families, and teachers; favorite stories and songs; upcoming events; class-
room recipes; and much more.

• Classroom or program websites can include both permanent and time-sensitive infor-
mation (see annotated list of websites at the end of this chapter).

• Blogs (see list at end of chapter for free online blogging sites).

• Email distribution list to families in addition to individual communications.

• Text or instant-messaging for real-time announcements.

• Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or other social networking applications to connect with
families and connect them to one another.

Informational and Interactive Events and Programs

As described in Table 5.2, many well-known models for formal family involvement include
components focused on parent education. These priorities may include such things as general
education, improving literacy and/or facility with English, career-ladder opportunities, or par-
enting skills. The focus or intent of these kinds of programs is different from parent education
about the child’s curriculum.

In this section, we briefly consider programs and experiences intended to inform and engage
parents/families in dialogue about the curriculum itself. These types of activities fall into three
broad categories: (1) providing access to curriculum resources, (2) planned events that engage
families in first-hand experiences with the curriculum, and (3) sending the curriculum home
(Berger, 2008; Gestwicki, 2004; Sciarra & Dorsey, 2007; Wentworth, 2006).

Providing Access to Curriculum Resources
First, parents should be able to see printed information about the curriculum and relevant
books, articles, or other references they can read or review at any time. If a purchased cur-
riculum is being used, samples of teacher resource books, printed assessment materials, and
examples of print materials that children use should be accessible at school for parents to view.

Teachers who develop their own curricula should make a description of the approach or
model and assessment system available in writing. An organized notebook of print resources,
such as articles that inform the curriculum and examples of children’s activities, can help par-
ents understand its goals. A specific location for resource information should be created that
is clearly designated for parent/family/community use. If a separate room is not available, this
space could be in the entry or reception area, a book rack in a hallway or office, or in class-
room observation areas if the site is so equipped.

The point is that parents need to sense that you want to share information about curriculum
with them, that you make an effort to do so, and that the information you provide is current
and accurate. If at all manageable, a circulating or lending system can reach family members
who can’t get to the resource location.

Planned Events That Engage Families
Events provide information and/or hands-on activities that give parents the opportunity to
learn about and interpret the curriculum first hand. Ideally, parents and teachers together
should have input about topics.

Helping Families to Understand the Curriculum Chapter 5

Examples of this kind of activity can include:

• Social events—such as a picnic, pan-
cake supper, or cookout—designed
to develop a sense of community at
school.

• An orientation meeting or information
session to share general information
about the curriculum and/or particular
elements such as literacy, math, or art.

• Informal discussion groups focused on
a specific topic (such as temper tan-
trums or toilet training) or sharing a
film or reading an article of relevance
or timeliness.

• A panel discussion with representatives
from local schools focused on helping
parents prepare for children’s transi-
tions to elementary school.

• A back-to-school night or open house
intended to familiarize family members
with classroom organization, materials,
and activities that are part of the chil-
dren’s daily experience.

• Hands-on workshops that engage parents in activities demonstrating how children
learn, such as story reading, a math/science cooking night, or even finger painting.

• Special events that highlight children’s work, such as an art exhibit, harvesting the
classroom garden, or celebrating children’s writing.

These events also provide for informal discussion and question-and-answer opportunities with
the teacher. When teachers and families engage in ongoing dialogue about the curriculum,
children benefit indirectly from insights they gain and a sense of shared purpose.

Sending the Curriculum Home
Inventive teachers also employ practical strategies to directly extend children’s curriculum
activities from school to home. Academic homework is inappropriate for young children. But
you could, for example, create a “traveling suitcase” or book bag (Gestwicki, 2004) with items
that a child might not have at home but that the family would enjoy using together, such as
a favorite book and puppet or puzzle. You might also provide paper, markers, and envelopes
for a drawing and note to put in the classroom mailbox for a friend. You can ask parents if it
would be appropriate to make a special call to children at home as an incentive for learning
their phone number, or send a postcard when they can tell you their address. You might send
home a photograph of the child at school, with paper and a pen for the parents to record how
the child describes what he or she was doing.

Families as Primary Curriculum Resources

If you reach out to the families in your classroom, you will find that they enrich your cur-
riculum tremendously. Every group of children brings a host of familial language, cultural,

Teachers can create many different kinds
of informal occasions to give families the
opportunity to become familiar with and
participate in their children’s activities.

Helping Families to Understand the Curriculum Chapter 5

occupational, and personal knowledge that, when combined, forms a unique community in
ways both obvious and subtle. Luis Moll and colleagues described this perspective toward
family involvement as a “funds of knowledge” approach (Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2005;
Grant, Ray, 2010; Ordonez-Jasiz & Ortiz, 2007), cautioning that failure to recognize parents as
a significant resource constitutes a deficit approach (pp. 4–5).

If you were writing a case study paper for a course assignment, you would certainly rely on
primary or first-hand sources (e.g., observation, interviews, and so on) as the most reliable
information for your description of the study subject(s). Similarly, you can consider your chil-
dren’s families as primary resources for the curriculum. The knowledge and insights you gain
about them should serve as a major influence for the decisions you make to plan and adapt
activities so that the curriculum is relevant, meaningful, and respectful.

Antibias Curriculum
Further support for these perspectives comes from the antibias curriculum guidelines devel-
oped by Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards (2010). The premise of antibias cur-
riculum is that a central focus of our work should be “to support children’s full development
in our multiracial, multilingual, multicultural world and to give them the tools to stand up to
prejudice, stereotyping, bias, and eventually to institutional ‘isms’”(p. vii).

The four broad goals of antibias curriculum can inform our work with families as curriculum
resources:

“Each child will:

1. Demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social identities.

2. Express comfort and joy with human diversity, accurate language for human differences,
and deep, caring human connectedness.

3. Increasingly recognize unfairness, have language to describe unfairness, and understand
that unfairness hurts.

4. Demonstrate empowerment and the skills to act, with others or alone, against prejudice
and/or discriminatory actions.” (pp. 4–5)

While there are many dimensions of the curriculum that can be enhanced with family support,
learning about the families of the young children you teach is one effective way to individual-
ize curriculum and promote the goals outlined above.

Learning About and Connecting with Families
There are several useful strategies you can use to gather information to help you connect
your curriculum with the children and their families. In this section we will consider three: (1)
questionnaires and interviews, (2) family mapping, and (3) storytelling.

Asking parents to complete an informational questionnaire or to participate in an interview,
either at school or during a home visit, can be extremely useful. The purpose of these activi-
ties should be twofold: to gather information about the child and to learn about the family.
Including a brief introductory statement that describes the purpose of the interview or ques-
tionnaire can answer questions parents might have about its intent.

Family survey questions should be framed in a manner that gives parents control over how
they report information. For example, asking to list family members who live in the home and

Helping Families to Understand the Curriculum Chapter 5

indicate their relationship to the child is preferable to listing family roles such as “mother,”
“father,” “sisters,” “brothers,” with an adjacent fill-in blank.

Table 5.4 lists several examples of questions about children and families you might want to ask.

Table 5.4: Examples of Interview or Family Survey Questions

Questions about the Child Questions about the Family

1. What are your child’s favorite activities?

2. What are your child’s least favorite activities?

3. Who does your child like to play with?

4. What are your child’s food preferences?

5. Does your child have any particular fears?

6. Does your child enjoy being read to or telling
stories?

7. Describe your child’s personality.

8. What does your child seem to be most interested in
learning about?

1. List the names of the family members who live in
your home and their relationship to your child.

2. What is your family’s country of origin?

3. What language(s) are spoken in your home?

4. Describe your family’s favorite recreational activities
or hobbies.

5. How does your family observe holidays?

6. How do the members of your family share family
history?

7. What kind of work do members of your family do?

As you gather information, you can begin to represent it by using a graphic organizer or
chart to create maps for individual families (Bennett, 2007) and/or your class as a whole. In
this way, you can start to see patterns and opportunities for ways to connect your curriculum,
children, and families. Figure 5.4 displays a map for an individual child/family in our imaginary
class. Figure 5.5 provides an example of the kinds of things you might learn about the group
of seventeen children in our opening vignette.

A third option for developing insights about families is storytelling. Stories can serve as power-
ful tools for learning, both as modeling an important component of literacy, and a means to
identify strengths and values within family groups (Fiese, Eckert, & Spagnola, 2006; Overton,
2005). Typically, the focus of family stories and legends varies by culture and reflects the fam-
ily’s worldview.

In Western cultures influenced by the Judeo-Christian tradition, stories often feature main
characters that exemplify strength and a focus on individualism, qualities highly valued in
the American mythology and folklore. In non-Western traditions, a collectivist orientation
influences narrative themes that frequently revolve around family responsibilities and a group
orientation (Fiese, Eckert, & Spagnola, 2006). Asking families to share a favorite story about
their child, history, or interesting characters can be done in numerous ways, including:

• Sending home a tape or digital audio recorder and asking a parent to read or tell the
story for use in the classroom listening center.

• Transcribing the story during a face-to-face meeting or visit to the classroom or care
setting.

• Giving each family a large index card to summarize a story and keeping the cards in a
file box.

• Providing each family with a piece of “language experience paper” that has lines for
writing on the bottom and space for an illustration at the top. Short narratives can
then be assembled into a book for the classroom library or book center.

Family stories can reveal patterns of strengths not perhaps observable in other ways, such
as perseverance, resourcefulness, spirit, humor, or diplomacy (Overton, 2005). When used in

Helping Families to Understand the Curriculum Chapter 5

the classroom, they offer children a concrete connection to home and opportunities to learn
about their friends.

F05.05_ECE311

At Home:
Mom (Josie)
Dad (Robert)

Brother (David, 9)
Baby on the way

Grandmother
Uncle (Jim)

Child Profile:
Fights with brother
Has 2 best friends

Generally sociable and
friendly

Learning to play soccer
Afraid of dark

Loves baking with
grandmother

Collects rocks & bugs
Hates vegetables

Likes ”Bob“ books

Work:
Mom – Nurse

Dad – Landscaping
Uncle – Landscaping

(own business)

Joseph
(4)

Language &
Origins:

Mom / Dad (U.S.)
Grandmother
(Puerto Rico)

English/ Spanish

Traditions
Christmas
Halloween

Annual Family Reunion
Birthdays

4th of July Picnic

Family Activities:
Camping / fishing

Figure 5.4: Family Map

From this family map you can see that Joseph lives with a bilingual extended family. They own a
landscaping business. His mother is a nurse and she is expecting their third child. The family enjoys
camping and fishing. The family reports that Joseph is generally happy but fights with his brother.
He seems to have science-related interests.

Helping Families to Understand the Curriculum Chapter 5

Strategies for Involving Families in Your Curriculum
If you have engaged in the kinds of activities described above, you most likely will have already
formed initial relationships with the families of your students. Armed with information and
motivated by a desire to include them in the curriculum and classroom culture, what can you
do to encourage them to actively participate? Providing a range of options is critical, as at
any given time family members’ ability and motivation to participate can vary (Hallacka-Ball,
2007). As a general rule, planning ahead and providing clear guidance, and a formal orienta-
tion about your expectations if necessary, is also good practice.

Informal visits can help you welcome families and make them feel comfortable in the classroom
or care setting. Such visits do not require a tremendous amount of preplanning, but you should
think about an overall approach, according to what the visit or occasion requires. For example:

• Informal visits or observations—advance notice is helpful, but an open-door policy
makes families feel welcome and lets them see curriculum in action.

• Birthdays or other special occasions—these require advance notice and time limits;
advise families of any policies relative to allergies or food restrictions.

F05.06_ECE311

Family History
• Oral history/
storytelling (3)
• Photo albums (12)
• Facebook (1)
• Annual reunion (1)

Work (parents or
extended family)
• Agriculture (6)
• Retail (3)
• Service industries (5)
• Book-keeping (1)
• Photographer (1)
• Baker (1)
• Law enforcement (1)
• Teacher/caregiver (2)
• Landscaping (3)
• Entertainer/singer (1)
• Nurse (1)

Traditions
• Christmas (17)
• Easter (16)
• Day of the Dead (1)
• Chinese New Year (1)
• Birthdays (17)
• Tooth Fairy (16)
• St. Patrick’s Day (2)
• 4th of July Picnic (10)
• Halloween (16)
• First Communion (6)

Countries of Origin
• US (13)
• Guatemala (1)
• Mexico (1)
• Jamaica (1)
• China (1)

Home Languages
• English (15)
• Spanish (2)

Hobbies/Recreation
• Camping/hiking (3)
• Moto-cross (1)
• Hunting/fishing (4)
• Carpentry (2)
• Flea markets (3)
• Soccer (6)
• Dancing (4)
• Playing in a band (1)
• Painting (1)

Figure 5.5: Classroom Map

From charting family survey data, you learn that you have family members who might be able to
support a study of community helpers (nurse, law enforcement); there is expertise related to grow-
ing, producing, distributing, and preparing foods and learning about stores and services; there also
might be interesting possibilities for photography and music.

Helping Families to Understand the Curriculum Chapter 5

• A visit from the family of the week
or month —schedule the visit and
let the family know ahead of time
what the routine is and what you
would like them to share about
their family.

• Invitations to siblings or grand-
parents to school—schedule in
advance and set aside time for
introductions and interactions.

• Lunch visits—letting the child know
ahead of time is important, as sep-
arating from the parent a second
time, after lunch, can be difficult.

• Assisted/chaperoned field trips—
field trips often require additional
adults. Parents need to know that
sometimes children’s normal class-
room behavior changes when par-
ents are present. But parents can
be very helpful with the logistics
of transporting lunches, rain gear,
a first aid kit, supplies, and so on, and they can provide the closer supervision that
is usually needed when children leave the school or center.

• Guest reader or storyteller—advise the family member on how the choice of a book
or story will be made; consider audio- or videotaping such a presentation for later use
(with permission).

Another range of options centers on more intentional, volunteer-type involvement that is
directly related to curriculum activities. These kinds of activities may require active recruit-
ing, some orientation, or directions regarding the specific nature of expectations or proce-
dures and the need for confidentiality and limits of authority. Volunteering in the classroom
can provide family members with a high level of satisfaction and self-esteem (Sciarra &
Dorsey, 2007).

Note: Long-term volunteers in a child-care setting, licensed preschool, or elementary school
classroom who will interact with children may have to secure health and security clearances
according to your state’s licensing regulations.

Volunteer opportunities are limited only by your imagination, but some of the more common
examples include:

• Reading to children—Reading on a regular basis rather than the one-time visit
described above. You may need to provide a reading list and some introduction to
effective strategies for introducing and reading a book, such as previewing the cover,
naming the author/illustrator, helping children predict what might happen, and mod-
erating expression while reading. But family members who might want to do this are
likely enthusiastic readers already. Reading to a group of children can be very different
from the one-on-one reading they do at home, so establishing a comfort level with
the number of children a volunteer reads to can also be wise.

Members of a child’s extended family—such as grandpar-
ents, aunts, or uncles—are often ready, willing, and able
to attend both formal and informal school functions.
Their involvement can extend the security of family rela-
tionships to the education setting.

Collaborating with the Community Chapter 5

• Clerical support—Some volunteers prefer to work “behind the scenes,” but they can
still learn a lot about and support your curriculum by working with materials: fixing
toys or mending books, cutting paper, laminating, printing announcements, assem-
bling classroom books, making labels. Task cards that provide simple directions are
helpful, especially if the helper is working when you are busy doing other things.

• Work/play facilitators—If a family member wants to volunteer as an “extra hand” in the
classroom for instructional support, the educator must provide him or her with the same
kind of orientation given to a paid assistant. Observing the classroom beforehand will
help the volunteer adapt to standard procedures and routines as well as the teacher’s
approach to classroom management. In the elementary school, volunteers may be asked
to help with homework or even assist at the computer station. Areas of the preschool/
kindergarten classroom particularly adaptable to this kind of help are dramatic play, art,
cooking, and the block area. With babies and toddlers, an extra “rocker” is usually wel-
come, and volunteers willing to get down on the floor and play can be priceless!

• “Experts”—Enlisting the help of parents or other family members with particular areas
of experience, expertise, or interest that relate directly to curriculum topics. Once you
know what kind of informational resources your parents can provide (via your surveys
and conversations) you can intentionally include topical studies or enrichment experi-
ences in the curriculum that relate to skills and knowledge present among your family
population. Family members are an excellent resource for sharing multicultural activities,
including the stories, but also for the music, food, song and dance of native cultures.

5.5 Collaborating with the Community
A developmentally appropriate approach to the curriculum assumes that teachers consider
communities an important source of information for planning (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009;
Gestwicki, 2011). This requires that teachers and administrators figure out how to gather and
share information and successfully integrate the community into the lives of their children in
school or care settings. This part
of the chapter focuses on practi-
cal ways to do so.

Communities as Primary
Curriculum Resources

Every content area of a cur-
riculum is represented in the
real world by individuals, orga-
nizations, businesses, and the
natural/physical environment.
Teachers and schools that
attempt to integrate children’s
experiences with the community
provide them with a meaningful
context for what they are learn-
ing, and there are many practi-
cal ways to do so.

In this image, volunteers, with the support of corporate
sponsors, are painting a school. This is an example of how
community partnerships can be mutually beneficial.

Collaborating with the Community Chapter 5

Knowing and Connecting with the Community
If you have lived in the community where you work, you will already have some familiarity with
the stores, neighborhoods, businesses, schools, and hospitals that make up the community. If
you are not familiar with the area, you can make an effort to get to know these features over
time. Once again, creating a file or notebook with information about community resources
can be very helpful. You can also add suggestions for how each resource can support your
curriculum. Figure 5.6 displays a template for recording information in a resource file.

Other ways in which you can gather information about your community include the following:

• Take walks in the immediate neighborhood.

• Obtain a calendar of community festivals and cultural events.

• Locate the nearest university extension service.

• Find out what child-friendly programs are available through local museums, parks,
media outlets, and tourist destinations such as zoos or historical sites.

• Identify closest access to public transportation, routes, and fare information.

• Gather menus from local restaurants.

• Make use of city/community websites and retail listings or Yellow Pages directories.

Figure 5.6: Template for a Resource File Card

On the sample card, information is recorded for a nearby retail store, including the name of an
individual who would be willing to come to the classroom.

Collaborating with the Community Chapter 5

Strategies for Involving the Community in the Curriculum
Experienced teachers know that once you have established relationships with individual fami-
lies and community partners, those networks don’t disappear at the end of each school year
or when your students move on to other schools or programs. The connections you make
over time constitute a store of personal resources that enhance any curriculum you use and
also serve to inform the community about how they can become involved with and invested
in early childhood education.

Opportunities for involving community in the curriculum are limited only by your imagina-
tion and ability to make creative use of resources. The following list provides brief narrative
examples from the author’s recent experiences:

• A toddler teacher notices that her 2-year-old children seem very interested in animals
but easily confuse larger farm animals, such as cows, horses, and goats. In her com-
munity, horse-drawn carriage tours are a major tourist attraction. She arranges with
a local tour company for a short carriage ride around the neighborhood and a visit to
the company’s barn, which has a small petting area with baby farm animals.

• Kindergarten children observe a nest being built by a bird on the playground and
begin to request information about how eggs hatch. The teacher contacts the state
university extension service. They have a program that offers to send a field agent who
will bring an incubator and eggs to the classroom, teach the children how to monitor
and turn the eggs daily until they hatch, and then reclaim the chicks.

• In a class of 3-year-olds, the teacher notices a high level of interest in rocks. She pro-
vides many activities and books about rocks and arranges a walking trip to a nearby
store that specializes in minerals, stones, and rocks. The store owners answer chil-
dren’s questions and allow each child to choose a small rock to bring back to the
classroom.

• Children in a class of 4-year-olds who are studying different kinds of bread plant a
small patch of wheat in their class garden. One of the parents from the class works as
a cashier for a local grocery store. The parent approaches the operations manager of
the store, who agrees to send the head baker to the classroom to demonstrate bread
making.

• The director of a child care program contacts a local lumber yard that agrees to save
and donate trimmings from their custom woodworking shop to the center. The teach-
ers then have a ready supply of interesting wood shapes for construction and three-
dimensional art projects.

In some instances, more formal, long-term collaborations that enhance curriculum are estab-
lished between schools, programs, and communities. There are many examples across America
of “public-private” partnerships that represent significant investments of personnel, money,
services, or equipment in early education and child-care programs (U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, 2012). A local business may “adopt” a school to provide it with com-
puters and technology support. A benefactor might donate or bequeath gifts for a variety of
purposes, or a local charitable group may actively pursue a mission to support young children
and their families. The United Way is a good example of a community organization that funds
and organizes activities to “help children and youth achieve their potential.”

http://www.unitedway.org/

Chapter Summary Chapter 5

Advocacy as a Community Effort

When communities work together with programs, early educators, schools, and families,
advocacy for young children becomes a shared, personalized endeavor. Through formal
and informal interactions, particular areas of strength and need become apparent that pro-
vide communities with the information they need to set priorities and distribute resources.
Teachers and caregivers are in a unique position to facilitate this process; besides membership
in national professional organizations (see Chapter 1), at a local level, they can:

• Participate in local or regional professional association activities, such as the NAEYC’s
Week of the Young Child

• Serve on site-based school improvement councils

• Volunteer for community improvement projects and initiatives

• Write letters to local government or private-sector representatives to identify areas of
need or opportunity

• Collaborate and network with educators in other programs

As you gain experience and knowledge about families and the community, your understand-
ing of how to connect these resources with your curriculum will grow. You will see that
the curriculum can respond to, include, and reflect unique perspectives that reinforce John
Dewey’s observation that “the school must represent present life—life as real and vital to the
child as that which he carries on in the home, in the neighborhood, or on the play-ground”
(1897, p. 78).

Chapter Summary
• Collaborating with families and communities involves communication, engagement,

and shared decision making between teachers, programs, and families. Research docu-
ments the many ways in which collaboration among teachers, families, and communi-
ties benefit all involved.

• Ecological and family systems theories provide a basis for understanding how produc-
tive relationships can be established and maintained.

• Despite challenges such as building trust and logistics, family involvement at school or
the child-care program can be effectively accomplished through formally established
programs or grassroots efforts.

• Helping parents understand learning standards includes providing information about
standards, accountability systems, and developmentally appropriate assessment.

• Teachers use many different strategies—including curriculum documentation, tech-
nologies, and interactive events—to help families understand and connect with the
curriculum.

• Teachers gather information about children and their families to gain insights about
the kinds of ways in which they can be considered primary resources for the curricu-
lum and to help them identify and respond to interests and needs.

• Teachers also gather information about the community in order to uncover opportuni-
ties for enhancing the curriculum with real-world, meaningful experiences.

http://naeyc.org/woyc

Posttest Chapter 5

Posttest

1. Student achievement is positively correlated with programs that:

a. Establish and maintain strict policies for keeping visitors out of classrooms so that
the teachers can concentrate on their work.

b. Find ways to promote parent and family participation in school activities and affairs.

c. Make all important decisions thoughtfully and then inform parents about how they
will affect their children.

d. Implement standardized testing of children as early as possible.

2. Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst were instrumental in establishing:

a. The PTO network of independent parent-teacher organizations.

b. The National Association for the Education of Young Children.

c. The Parent-Teacher Association (PTA).

d. A coalition of social workers to lobby Congress for passage of the Lanham Act.

3. Bronfenbrenner’s theory makes particular sense as a foundation for thinking about
home/school/community relationships because:

a. It represents the child’s experience in the context of interrelated influences.

b. Uri Bronfenbrenner was particularly well known and effective as a community
organizer.

c. Only theories from respected sources should be used to develop policies and
procedures.

d. It shows that culture has little impact on children’s development.

4. Family systems theory maintains that while families are increasingly diverse,

a. Physical and emotional home environments are remarkably similar.

b. All families are highly motivated to be involved in school or child care center
activities.

c. Children learn to adopt characteristics of mainstream culture at school indepen-
dently of the roles they exhibit at home.

d. Incorporating rituals, customs, and home traditions can provide consistency, secu-
rity, and balance for children at school or in care.

5. Alignment or mapping of standards and curriculum is a process that:

a. Matches NAEYC developmentally appropriate practice with the National Core
Standards

b. Matches a particular set of learning standards with curriculum objectives, out-
comes, or activities.

c. Shows the relationship between state tests and state standards.

d. Is developmentally inappropriate, so it is not recommended for preschool teachers.

Posttest Chapter 5

6. Providing information to families about developmentally appropriate practice and the
curriculum:

a. Is not necessary, as only the teachers have the training and experience to under-
stand what a DAP curriculum represents and includes.

b. Helps them understand that standards do not dictate the specific curriculum a pro-
gram or school uses.

c. Provides an opportunity to address and meet early learning standards.

d. Ensures that they will subsequently want to be more involved in school activities.

7. Visual documentation of student learning is a process that:

a. Preschool and infant/toddler teachers don’t typically use as it takes too much time.

b. Teachers use to adapt curriculum for children with visual impairments.

c. Aligns curriculum and standards using technology, so that it will be easy for parents
to understand.

d. Teachers use to represent children’s work with images, narratives, reflections, and
artifacts.

8. Teachers use many strategies to help families of preschoolers learn about their child’s
curriculum, including:

a. Providing and discussing printed or online information about the curriculum.

b. Sending home report cards four times a year.

c. Setting up an email distribution list to communicate with families.

d. Sending home worksheets for homework, so parents can see what the children do
every day.

9. Regarding families and communities as primary curriculum resources:

a. Isn’t relevant, because the primary grades are not really part of early childhood
education.

b. Isn’t needed because typically the curriculum provides all necessary resources.

c. Includes gathering information in respectful ways that can be subsequently ana-
lyzed and organized for opportunities.

d. Is the only way to effectively address the learning needs of the children in your
care.

10. Teachers and families engage in child advocacy when they:

a. Join together to celebrate children in events such as the NAEYC’s Week of the
Young Child.

b. Share responsibilities for chaperoning field trips.

c. Repair and recycle books for the public library.

d. Collect and redeem grocery store box tops to raise money for the program.

Answers: 1 (b); 2 (c); 3 (a); 4 (d); 5 (b); 6 (b); 7 (d); 8 (a); 9 (c); 10 (a)

Key Terms Chapter 5

Discussion Questions

1. Identify aspects of working with families that you feel most and least confident about
and what you might do to either strengthen or enhance those capabilities.

2. From what you already know about the community in which you live or work, brain-
storm an initial list of possible curriculum resources; use the card format from Figure 5.6
to record information about them.

3. From the information you have so far from the opening vignettes about your imagi-
nary class, what kinds of opportunities and challenges for successful family involvement
might you anticipate?

Answers and Rejoinders to Chapter Pretest

1. True. Early childhood organizations, researchers, and public funding sources believe
that collaboration improves learning outcomes for children.

2. False. Understanding the ways families work helps teachers understand and respond to
the children they teach or care for.

3. True. Helping families understand goals and desired outcomes also aids their under-
standing about how the curriculum addresses curriculum standards.

4. True. Making the curriculum visible in the classroom and other appropriate areas of the
school sends a powerful message to all—children, families, and community—that what
young children learn and do is important.

5. True. Connecting children with the community makes the curriculum more real and
meaningful and establishes partnerships within the community.

Key Terms

Adequate yearly progress (AYP) Refers to the expected average gain in achievement test
scores of a school’s population from one year to the next

Alignment (mapping) Documentation in writing of how curriculum goals and compo-
nents connect specifically with elements of learning standards

Benchmark Description of a desired goal that represents a gain of knowledge or skills by a
particular time

Differentiating instruction Adapting the environment, materials, and planning to meet
the needs and interests of individual children

Family systems theory (FST) Looking at and studying children in the context of family

Graphic organizer Charts or other templates used to organize ideas, information, or
procedures

High-stakes testing When the outcome of an individual child’s performance on a single
test is tied to decisions that will impact access to educational opportunities

References Chapter 5

Parent-Teacher Association An organization of parents, teachers and staff, all of whom
work together to encourage parent participation in the school or classroom

Examples of Programs Offering Website Curriculum Information

Clicking on the links below will take you to the home page for each school, which provides
examples of the curriculum in use at each.

N. E. Miles Early Childhood Development Center, Charleston, SC. The N. E. Miles ECDC is a
university-based preschool and kindergarten demonstration program.

Nautilus Montessori School, Roseville, CA. A private preschool and kindergarten using an aca-
demic Montessori program with additional curricular elements specific to the school.

Emerson Waldorf School, Chapel Hill, NC. A school spanning pre-K through grade 12 using
the Waldorf approach inspired by Rudolf Steiner.

Mini University, Miami, OH. Four NAEYC-accredited centers in southern Ohio using the Creative
Curriculum. Clicking on “age groups” provides access to information about curriculum and
standards used with children of different ages.

Rosalie Cooperative School of Young Children, Albuquerque, NM. This is a home-based coop-
erative of families inspired by Reggio-Emilia.

Pine Village Spanish Immersion Preschools, Boston. An early childhood program for toddlers
and preschoolers with a curriculum focused on global citizenship and bilingual education.

Websites for Creating Classroom Blogs

Blogger (for teachers) Google site with version designed for teachers.

EduBlogs Designed for teachers to easily create and manage their own blogs, with features
for customizing designs, privacy, and uploading videos, photos, and podcasts.

Kidblog Set up so that teachers can easily create blogs for kids to use. The teacher functions
as the blog administrator to manage children’s accounts.

SchoolRack Award-winning site for creating classroom websites and blogs with features for
communication and collaboration.

References

Bennett, T. (2007). Mapping famly resources and support. D. Kovalek (Ed.), Spotlight on
young children and families (pp. 20–23). Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Berger, E. H. (2008). Parents as partners in education: Families and schools working together
(7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.

Berson, I. R., & Berson, M. J. (Eds.) (2010). High-tech tots: Childhood in a digital world.
Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Bradley, J., & Kibera, P. (2007). Closing the gap: Culture and promotion of inclusion in child
care. D. Kovalek (Ed.), Spotlight on young children and families (pp. 38–43). Washington,
DC: NAEYC.

http://ecdc.cofc.edu

http://www.nautilusmontessori.com/

http://www.emersonwaldorf.org/

http://emh.kaiapit.net/rosalie/?page=welcome

http://mybilingualpreschool.com/

Home

http://kidblog.org/home/

Maintenance Page

http://www.miniuniversity.net/centers/miami-university/

https://www.blogger.com/about/

References Chapter 5

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and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Christian, L. (2007). Understanding families: Applying family systems theory to early chlid-
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Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Clay, J. (2007). Creating safe, just places to learn for children of lesbian and gay parents.
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NAEYC.

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Copple, C., & Bredekamp, S. (Eds) (2009). Key messages of the position statement. Reprinted
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selves. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

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Epstein, J. L. (2001) School, family, and community partnerships: preparing educators and
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Fiese, B., Eckert, T., & Spagnola, M. (2006). Family context in early childhood: A look at prac-
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Gestwicki, C. (2011). Developmentally appropriate practice: Curriculum and development in
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References Chapter 5

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Evaluation and Assessment

of Learning and Programs

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

1. Explain the concept of developmentally appropriate assessment.

2. Describe different types of formal and informal assessments teachers use with children.

3. Describe how teachers manage and use assessment information.

4. Identify and explain processes used to evaluate curriculum.

5. Describe developmentally appropriate considerations for using technology with children.

6. Describe important considerations for lifelong professional learning.

12
Pretest
1. Teachers don’t need to plan for assessment

because the curriculum includes all the
materials they need. T/F

2. Standardized tests are the best tools to use
to assess young children. T/F

3. Teachers use assessment information and
analyses to adapt curriculum. T/F

4. Program evaluations provide valuable
information for teachers about how to
strengthen their practices. T/F

5. It is possible to use technologies with young
children in developmentally appropriate
ways. T/F

6. Once teachers have experience, they no lon-
ger need to prioritize intentional reflection
about their work. T/F

Answers can be found at end of the chapter.

Developmentally Appropriate Assessment Chapter 12

Well here you are, on your way to understanding the intricacies of early childhood curriculum
and the balancing act that a developmentally appropriate approach requires. Your classroom
is a happy, busy place. Friendships are forming, children are playing, and you are using your
understanding of the developmental emphasis in the early learning standards and content
focus of K–12 academic standards to plan and implement engaging and challenging activities.
You’ve also begun to notice the individual characteristics, strengths, and needs of your chil-
dren and are beginning to think about ways of adapting the curriculum to meet their needs.

Your sense is that everything is going well, but how do you know for sure that you are meet-
ing the goals and expectations of your curriculum? Throughout this book, we’ve addressed
this question in part by discussing the need to observe children in order to scaffold their devel-
opment. But what specific things can you do to determine your children’s individual needs
and chart their progress? How do you identify children who might have special needs? How
do you know whether your curriculum is working as intended? What should you do to con-
tinue developing your own curriculum knowledge? In view of increasing use and awareness
of technologies, what are the most effective ways to use these technologies for curriculum
and/or assessment?

In this chapter, we examine the concepts of student assessment and ongoing evaluation for
continuous improvement of the curriculum. We also address the emerging and changing role
of technology as a tool for curriculum implementation and assessment.

12.1 Developmentally Appropriate Assessment
The primary goal of a developmentally appropriate approach to assessment is to inform your
practices so that the curriculum you implement matches the developmental needs and inter-
ests of the children in your care or classroom (Gullo, 2006; NAEYC/NAECS/SDE, 2003). As you
continue to think about theory as part of the “why” behind curriculum decisions, assessment
of your students and your program also provides practical, ongoing information to guide what
you choose to do. For example, setting up your classroom using sound principles of design
should theoretically provide children with opportunities to engage with materials, explore
their ideas and imagination, and promote socialization. Your assessment of how children actu-
ally use the environment, however, may reveal that some areas need more or fewer materials
to balance movement and activity levels.

Similarly, while you observe daily that Anna Bess is a highly verbal child, with a large vocabu-
lary and sophisticated sense of story structure, you may learn through assessment that she
needs a great deal of support to identify the sounds in words to help her progress in reading
and writing.

Creating an Assessment Plan

Planning for the assessment of groups and individual children should reflect a systematic,
comprehensive approach (NAEYC, 2005). Assessment of young children is most effective
when it is curriculum-based—that is, aligned with learning standards as well as the goals and
content of the curriculum and used to modify activities and practices to advance the develop-
ment of each child (Gullo, 2006). In general, assessments are categorized either as formative

Developmentally Appropriate Assessment Chapter 12

if they document ongoing development and progress, or summative if they are administered
at intervals, such as end-of-year reports used to confer with a child’s family.

Some widely used programs, such as Creative Curriculum and High Scope, offer integrated,
curriculum-based assessment systems with tools, schedules, and guidance for teachers that
are also aligned with state early learning standards. In elementary schools, assessment sys-
tems are driven by national and state standards and typically include a balance of formative
and summative assessments (often standardized tests) that measure overall achievement at
the end of a school year. Independent or private early childhood programs may design their
own assessment systems, such as the one displayed in Table 12.1, designed by an NAEYC-
accredited program to meet the standard for assessment. This example of an assessment
system for a preschool program provides a timetable that indicates when and how assessment
information is collected, communicated, organized, and applied.

Table 12.1: Sample Assessment System

Time Line Activity Instruments Product Follow-up

At enrollment Developmental
screening

Ages/Stages
Questionnaire (ASQ)
for appropriate age
and Social Emotional
Questionnaire (ASQ/
SE) if indicated

Formal report for
child file

Referral to BabyNet or Child Find and
process via school district if warranted
or follow up with additional question-
naires for more data

August Teacher–teacher
conference

Child file Draft Goals Form
(GF) for home visit

Confer with prior teacher if more
information needed

August Home visits Home Information
Form (HIF), goals
form photo

Family/child profile

Initiate or revise
existing goals

Regular informal communications;
referrals if needed

September New family orien-
tation (evening
session about
assessment
system)

All assessment
system documents

Present/discuss
assessment
system

Q&A as indicated; ongoing informal
communications

Ongoing Home/school
communication

Celebrations and
Concerns form (CCF)

Completed form Conversation, conferences if
requested; information used to inform
curricular decisions

Fall term,
monthly:

August,
September,
October

Observation,
recording
anecdotal
evidence

Anecdotal record Updated goals

Individualizing instruction and
adjusting curriculum

Fall term,
monthly:

August,
September,
October

Work sample
collection

Portfolio Photo, video/
audio recording,
artifact

Used to inform curricular decisions
and evidence of growth; shared
during parent/teacher conference

(continued)

https://teachingstrategies.com/solutions/teach/

https://highscope.org/

Developmentally Appropriate Assessment Chapter 12

The NAEYC recommends that a well-developed assessment system should focus on identifying
children’s needs and interests, describing and reporting their progress accurately, and using
assessment information to make curriculum decisions (National Association for the Education
of Young Children, 2005). As described in the 2003 NAEYC/NAECS/SDE position statement,
an effective assessment system is characterized by:

• Ethical practices

• Fidelity between assessment practices and their intended uses

• Age, developmental, and cultural appropriateness

• Reliable and valid methods and instruments

• Alignment with desired outcomes that are educationally significant

• Application of results that improves learning and outcomes for children

Time Line Activity Instruments Product Follow-up

Fall
Conference
Day

Parent/teacher
conference;
compile informa-
tion from various
sources used
throughout the
term

Goals Form (GF)

Celebrations and
Concerns Forms (CCF)

Work samples

Early Learning
Standards (ELS)
checklist

Performance
assessments

Early Learning
Standards Report
(ELS) and work
samples

Revised goals

Referrals to BabyNet or Child Find
if warranted; entry signed by both
parent and teacher on goals form;
recommendations for future curricular
decisions and individualization

Spring Term
monthly:
January,
February,
March

Work sample
collection

Portfolio Updated portfo-
lios with photos
and artifacts

Individualizing instruction and
adjusting curriculum

By
February 15

Quarterly commu-
nication: Verbal or
written updates
as indicated/
needed per fall
conferences

Conference and/
or written narrative
progress report

Celebrations and
Concerns Forms (CCF)

Update goals Conversation or formal conference if
parent/teacher requests

April
Conference
Day

Parent/teacher
conference;
compile informa-
tion from various
sources used
throughout the
term

Goals Form

Celebration and
Concerns Forms

Work samples

Early Learning
Standards checklist

Performance
assessments
Early Learning
Standards Report
(ELS) and work
samples

Revised Goals

Referrals to BabyNet or Child Find if
warranted

April
Conference
Day

“Paper Day”—
Update family
information

Home Information
Form (HIF)

Health and
Emergency Forms

Completed form Compile list of students with allergies,
inform teacher for involving parents
and children in family and culturally
sensitive ways, planning curriculum

Developmentally Appropriate Assessment Chapter 12

• Concrete evidence collected in real-world contexts

• Conclusions based on multiple sources of evidence gathered over time

• Follow-through as needed to provide referrals or other needed services

• Limited use of standardized tests

• Collaboration between teachers, programs, and families

These principles make sense because they focus on acquiring information that is used to
improve teaching and learning and identify children who may need interventions. Practices
consistent with these principles promote access to services, efficient use of resources, and
confidence in determinations and decisions made on behalf of young children. NAEYC and
NAECS/SDE assessment guidelines are based on professional standards established by the
American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the
National Center for Measurement in Education (NAEYC/NAECS/SDE, 2003).

The Importance of Objectivity

Critical to the use of any assessment strategy or method is objectivity. Teachers must learn
to separate the accounting of what they observe or measure in children from interpretation,
which should be done separately in the context of analyzing multiple sources of data (Jablon,
Dombro & Dichtelmiller, 2007). In other words, teachers strive to separate facts from opinions.

Consider the two sample anecdotal entries below recorded by a teacher of a 4-year-old class:

1. Jamison stepped on a line of blocks that Camden was arranging on the floor in the
block area. Camden looked at Jamison and said, “Stop it, you are wrecking my road.”
Jamison stepped on the blocks again and then kicked two of them out of the line.
Camden started to cry and Jamison said, “You are just a big baby, I don’t want to play
with you anyways.” Jamison backed away from the block center and stood off to the
side with his fists clenched and tears in his eyes as Anya came and sat down next to
Camden.

2. Camden wanted to work alone and was minding his own business arranging blocks in
a line to make a road; Jamison intruded and stepped on them. Camden felt frustrated
and when he said “Stop it, you are wrecking my road,” Jamison kicked the blocks and
in typically mean fashion said, “You are just a big baby, I don’t want to play with you
anyways.” Anya came over to make Camden feel better and Jamison just sulked and
pouted over in the corner.

The first record preserves the events as they occurred with matter-of-fact language, while the
second clearly assigns protagonist/antagonist roles to Jamison and Camden and assumes moti-
vations for the behavior that occurred for all three children. The first note, compared with other
narratives, can be analyzed for behavior trends over time for any of the children. Perhaps this
episode is consistent with a pattern of aggressive (Jamison) or passive (Camden) or empathetic
(Anya) behaviors, but it could just as easily represent a departure from any of the children’s usual
interactions. The second entry clearly indicates that the teacher has already made a judgment
about each of the children, and its usefulness for gleaning insights is limited.

Similarly, suppose four times a year a teacher conducted a fine motor assessment by asking
each child to cut out a paper circle with scissors. Table 12.2 displays two records of this task
on separate occasions as it might be recorded by different teachers.

Identifying Children’s Needs and Interests Chapter 12

Table 12.2: Two Accounts of Cutting

Teacher A Teacher B

9/14: Does not hold scissors
properly. Can’t cut.

9/14: Holds scissors in right hand sideways with thumb in one hole and index
finger in the other. Holds paper in left hand at 12 o’clock position. Attempting
to cut in counterclockwise motion, starting at 6 o’clock, but paper slides through
scissors.

11/15: Good grip; still can’t
cut very well.

11/15: Right-hand grip now includes thumb and first two fingers with thumb up.
Holds paper with left hand at 9 o’clock position. Cuts counterclockwise from 3 to
12 o’clock and stops.

Teacher A uses subjective labeling (“properly,” “good”) and language indicating an opinion
about the child’s performance on each occasion, while teacher B records information that can
be interpreted to describe progress in measurable terms.

Another way teachers ensure objectivity is by using scoring tools, or rubrics, that rely on
criterion referencing based on observable behaviors or performance rather than subjective
judgments. A criterion is similar to a standard or benchmark—a statement or descriptor that
conveys an expected outcome or level of performance. If a criterion describes an action or
behavior that is observable, it is more likely that anyone who performs the assessment will
score it objectively, as the behavior will either be observed or it won’t.

For example, suppose you are assessing self-help skills. Using criteria such as “not indepen-
dent, working on independence, independent” is subjective; if two teachers rated the same
child they might each have a very different idea about what “working on . . .” means or what
criterion must be met to be rated “independent.” A scoring tool that lists criteria such as “ties
shoes, zips, cleans up without being asked, puts nap items away unassisted, asks for help
when needed” is objective because the assessor must see the child perform each task in order
to check it off.

12.2 Identifying Children’s Needs and Interests
Assessment methods can be formal or informal. Formal assessments include standardized
measures that are norm-referenced; that is, they score an individual child’s performance
against the average, or mean, scores of a larger population of children. The larger popula-
tion is selected to be representative of the smaller samples of children to whom the test is
administered.

Informal assessments are not normed, may be narratively expressed, and can be obtained
commercially or teacher-designed. Informal assessments are implemented in the classroom or
care setting to document learning, skills, and/or behavior. These measures contribute valuable
information that provides a holistic, context-specific view of growth over time.

Other measures, either formal or informal, are criterion-referenced, or designed to assess
each individual child or group of children with respect to specific goals or desired outcomes
expressed in curriculum materials, state early learning and academic standards, or individual-
ized learning plans for children with special needs, such as the Individual Educational Plan (IEP)
or Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP).

Identifying Children’s Needs and Interests Chapter 12

Formal Assessments

Normed standardized instruments generally fall into one of three categories: screens, achieve-
ment tests, or intelligence tests. The purpose of a screening tool such as the Denver II
(Denver Developmental Materials, 2012) or the Brigance Early Childhood series (Curriculum
Associates, 2011) is usually to obtain a general picture of development or behavior to deter-
mine if a more detailed assessment or evaluation is warranted. Screens can be administered by
trained professionals, but instructions are typically easy for educators to follow. Some screens,
such as the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (2012), are specifically designed for parents.

Achievement tests are intended to assess what a child knows or can do and are the types
of tests administered annually to elementary and high school students to measure progress
toward meeting state academic standards and curriculum outcomes. A battery of several
subtests is typically administered over several days. Use of a single achievement test to make
high-stakes decisions, such as a child’s readiness for school, is considered inadequate and
developmentally inappropriate (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009).

Intelligence tests are designed to deter-
mine a person’s aptitude and capacities
for learning in comparison to all others
in the population from which the norms
are derived. The Binet-Simon Intelligence
Test, developed by Alfred Binet and
Lewis Simon in 1905, was the first to be
introduced. In 1916, Lewis Terman, at
Stanford University, adapted the scales for
American use as the Stanford-Binet Scales
(Levine & Munsch, 2011). The test score
was expressed as an intelligence quo-
tient (IQ) or ratio of mental to chrono-
logical age.

The Wechsler Intelligence Scales, intro-
duced by psychologist David Wechsler in
1955, are also widely used and adapted the IQ concept to an intelligence deviation score,
basing norms on a distribution of scores across the normal curve. These tests are reliable only
when they are administered by trained professionals, usually psychologists, and typically not
before age 6.

Concerns about cultural bias in the norming processes first expressed by Alfred Binet (Siegler,
1992) persist today, since many believe that the heavy reliance on language in these tests
compromises results for children with limited English proficiency (Levine & Munsch, 2011).

Widespread implementation of standardized testing with children under the age of 8, espe-
cially if not balanced with the holistic data that informal assessments provide, is considered
developmentally inappropriate (NAEYC/NAECS/SDE, 2003). Such tests offer only a “snapshot”
of what the child can do, don’t allow for modification to accommodate individual differences,
don’t accurately reflect a child’s real-life experience, may be linguistically or culturally biased,
and focus only on what rather than how a child learns (Anderson, Moffat, & Shapiro, 2006;
Branscombe, Castle, Dorsey & Taylor, 2003; Gullo, 2006). While teachers need to understand

Early childhood educators and researchers exercise cau-
tion in using standardized test for a variety of reasons.

Identifying Children’s Needs and Interests Chapter 12

how formal measures such as standardized tests are developed and used, their administra-
tion should be limited to instances where it is clear that the results may benefit children in a
specific way, such as identifying a child with special needs who would be entitled to support
services (NAEYC/NAECS/SDE, 2003).

Informal Assessments

Programs and teachers that apply developmentally appropriate principles to assessment make
extensive use of informal assessments, also known as alternative or authentic methods.
Informal assessments match curriculum goals, actively involve children and families, focus
on change and growth over time, and occur in real time in the classroom or care setting
(Branscombe, Castle, Dorsey & Taylor, 2003; Gullo, 2006; Jablon, Dombro, & Dichtelmiller,
2007; Wortham, 2011). Often, authentic assessments focus on recording observations of
individual children during play (Beaty, 2009; Bodrova & Leong, 2007; Flagler, 1996; Gullo,
2006; Jablon, Dombro, & Dichtelmiller, 2007) or daily routines, interactions with family mem-
bers, and in group interaction (Jablon, Dombro & Dichtelmiller, 2007).

Teachers also design per-
formance or skills assess-
ments and collect and
analyze learning artifacts to
evaluate growth and identify
needed curriculum modifica-
tions. Authentic assessments
don’t require that the teacher
“prep” children, in contrast
to the coaching that teach-
ers sometimes provide to
prepare children for a paper-
and-pencil standardized test.
Rather than offering the
child a preselected group of
available responses that may
not necessarily match what
the child knows, authentic
assessments record behavior

and performance in the precise terms or actions displayed by the child (Anderson, Moffat, &
Shapiro, 2006; Gullo, 2006).

Observational Strategies and Tools
Assessment information obtained via the direct observation of children can provide valuable
data over time, in multiple contexts, in the words of the teacher or child, and during many
kinds of activities (Jablon, Dombro, & Dichtelmiller, p. 42). For example, a teacher might
observe a child during indoor or outdoor play, at lunchtime, or during transitions. Tools for
observation can be premade, obtained from various resources, or constructed by the teacher.
Observations should always be dated and the observer noted if multiple people are assessing
the same group of children. Types of observational assessments include those described in
Table 12.3.

Authentic assessments take place in the learning setting, with familiar
materials and adults that children know and trust.

Identifying Children’s Needs and Interests Chapter 12

Table 12.3: Observation-Based Assessments

Type of
Observation

Description and Uses Formats/Tools

Anecdotal
record

Descriptive narratives that record details of events, behaviors, or
notes about children’s activities, accomplishments, or needs.

Index cards, notebook
paper, bound journal,
adhesive mailing labels,
sticky notes, calendar.

Running record Real-time recording of activity, conversation, or behavior, often
time-stamped as observation proceeds (akin to a video recording,
but with words rather than a camera).

Index cards, notebook
paper, journal.

Daily log Records observations over the course of a day, in sync with
different time or activity blocks.

Clipboard with
preprinted daily schedule
and blanks for recording
what child does at
different times.

Checklists While observing, the teacher checks for presence or absence of
targeted outcomes, behaviors, or language on a preprinted list;
this may be used to track whether child completed sequence of
activities; teacher checks off or records date target is achieved.
Used to track growth of skills or development over time.

Clipboard and pre-
printed forms or online
lists of skills or behaviors
used with laptop, tablet,
or other portable device
for use in the classroom.

Time/event
sampling

Often used together to discern the frequency or cause of problem
behaviors; the teacher may use a tally sheet to record the number
of times a particular behavior (such as hitting or crying) is observed
over a predetermined time period such as an hour or day; event
sampling records what activity or behavior directly preceded or
followed a behavior being tracked to look for patterns or cause/
effect. Can also be used to track how many times a child visits
a particular center, the rest room, or how much time is
spent there.

Clipboard with tally
sheet; notebook paper
or index cards.

Diagrams/
sketches

Track movement of children around the room; can be helpful for
identifying interaction patterns, and children’s interests.

Preprinted floor plan.

Interest
inventories

Can be used to gain information from children and families about
what children like and dislike; helps in planning and selecting
activities and materials.

Checklist or question-
naires; sign-up sheets
for activities.

Child interviews Conducted any time first-hand information about children’s needs,
problems, interests, or reasoning would be helpful for assessment,
conflict resolution, behavior management, or planning.

Audio- or videotape;
written transcriptions.

Rating scales Records a qualitative assessment using predetermined indicators of
achievement (e.g., emergent, developing, mastered) or frequency
(e.g., never, sometimes, always).

Preprinted forms that
list activity or skills being
observed with blank
space for recording
assessment.

Matrices/grids Preprinted chart that records activity of a group of children or for
observing multifaceted activity, such as both social interactions
and language during play. Usually represented on a chart with
both vertical and horizontal axes. With a group of children, names
are listed on one axis and targeted behavior or skills on the other.
With an individual child, one type of behavior is noted on each
axis.

Clipboard and
preprinted sheets.

Identifying Children’s Needs and Interests Chapter 12

What the teacher does while observing varies by the purpose, timing, and characteristics
of the observational tool being used. For instance, an anecdotal record or note is an “after-
the-fact” narrative; a teacher might make entries during planning time, at the end of a day
or week while memory is fresh and events can be recalled accurately. A running record or
time/event sampling is recorded in real time as behavior is occurring. A teacher might use a
checklist to observe and assess a child or group of children for vocabulary and social interac-
tion skills while interacting with them during lunchtime or he or she might record the same
kind of data while standing or sitting off to the side as children build with blocks or engage
in dramatic play.

Performance-Based Assessments and Developmental Checklists
Teachers sometimes conduct assessments with individual children in face-to-face interactions
to determine their level of mastery of particular skills. Performance assessments provide infor-
mation about what a child knows or does. The teacher may ask a child to perform an action,
such as scissor-cutting to assess motor skills. Or the teacher might ask a child to complete a
task to assess the extent to which a child has attained a cognitive skill such as one-to-one
correspondence. She could select items from the classroom math or manipulative center, set
them up in a line on the table, and ask the child to point to each item while counting, repeat-
ing the assessment as many times as necessary to determine for sure what the child can do.

Further, to document a child’s reasoning ability, a
teacher may ask the child to demonstrate how he or
she might solve a problem, such as dividing a set of
objects into two equivalent sets, and record informa-
tion about the child’s ability to do so.

The main advantage of this type of assessment is the
opportunity to use materials familiar to the child in a
context where you can also ask questions and invite
the child to explain his or her thinking or reasoning.
As discussed in earlier chapters, many of the state
standards documents provide examples of things
you should be observing as indicators that each cri-
terion is being met. These “snapshots” can be very
helpful as suggestions for skills assessments.

Some teachers do performance assessments on a
predetermined schedule, such as two children per
week for a particular set of skills; others do so on
an as-needed basis for compiling conferencing
reports or completing comprehensive developmental
checklists.

Artifacts and Work Sampling
An artifact is a concrete sample of work produced
by a child, such as a journal page, painting, pho-
tograph of a block construction, or recording of a
child speaking or reading. Artifacts provide direct
evidence of what a child can do, and a collection of
artifacts contributes to the teacher’s understanding
of growth and learning.

Teachers create anecdotal records by making
notes about each child, either on a regularly
scheduled basis or as needed to document
behavior and observations. The narrative
record about learning that builds over time
may be used for many purposes.

Identifying Children’s Needs and Interests Chapter 12

Teachers employ work sampling by
selectively choosing and saving artifacts
that reflect curriculum goals and develop-
mental benchmarks. The Work Sampling
System developed by Samuel J. Meisels
and colleagues (2012) is used by many
early childhood programs, including a ver-
sion specifically designed for Head Start.

Self-Assessment
Even very young children can provide
information about what they know and
what they can do through self- assessment,
which helps teachers document their
growth and learning. Sometimes self-
assessment occurs naturally through
conversation or verbal interactions. For
instance, a 3-year-old might say “My
jacket is wrong” as he tries to close the
snaps before going outside. The teacher observes that he has fastened some snaps but that
they are not matched correctly. Therefore she knows that he does indeed have the fine motor
skill needed to press the two pieces of a snap closure together and that he realizes they also
need to be matched properly.

A kindergarten child may come to the teacher with his writing journal and state, “I know the
word “papa” starts with “p” but I don’t know what letter comes next, “o” or “a.” This state-
ment reveals that the child has already narrowed down the sound that follows p to two viable
alternatives, one that represents the sound he hears and the other perhaps an indication of
emerging knowledge that words aren’t always spelled the way they sound.

In other instances, teachers intentionally engage children in self-assessment in a short inter-
view or conference. For example, upon completion of a study of birds, the teacher might ask
each child, “What birds do you know about now that you didn’t before? Can you tell me
some things you learned about them?” Or, after a child has spent several days building an
airport in the block center, the teacher could show the child several pictures of the structure
in progress and ask, “What was the hardest part of building the airport? I see that you made
a parking garage with a ramp, can you tell me how you figured out a way to make the roof?
How did you decide when the airport was finished?”

Writing conferences with children allow for a child to isolate specific problems encountered or
challenges overcome, such as circling words in the draft of a story that might be misspelled or
underlining words the child is confident about.

Similarly, a teacher can engage a child in making evaluative judgments. For instance, she could
ask the child to look at two different paintings and choose the one that represents his best
effort and to explain why he thinks so. Or she could give him two different highlighters with
which to identify his best examples of written letters and ones he needs to practice more.

The value of self-assessment is that it gives voice to a child’s ideas about her own strengths
and weaknesses and contributes to constructing an image of herself as a partner in the
learning process. The child’s observations may be congruent with the teacher’s independent

Teachers selectively choose learning artifacts, such as a
child’s artwork, to represent evidence of growth and
change over time.

Identifying Children’s Needs and Interests Chapter 12

evaluations, identify misperceptions the child might have about her skills, or provide addi-
tional factors for the teacher to consider.

Identifying Children with Special Needs

Each state is required to provide a process for referring, evaluating, and implementing early
intervention services for young children as needed under the federal Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (U.S. Department of Education, 2012). Part C of IDEA focuses on children from
birth through age 2, and Part B covers individuals aged 3 through 21.

Providing support for children with disabilities is a collaborative process, and part of your role
in assessment is noting and sharing observations with families when you see indications of
a developmental delay or atypical behavior. Your concerns should be noted with a high level
of sensitivity, as parents often feel anxious or confused and may need help with initiating a
referral request.

As an early childhood educator or caregiver, you will be part of an assessment team that
determines the possible existence of delays or disabilities that constitute eligibility for services
and, second, ensures that your curriculum and assessment strategies support those children
who do need extra help (Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children,
2007). If a child in your care is determined to be eligible for services, you will also participate
in documenting the child’s progress toward goals that are established and periodically revised
in the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) or Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP). The kinds
of authentic assessment strategies and tools described in this chapter are preferred:

Because the participants or informants for
most criterion- or curriculum-based assess-
ments are teachers and care providers who
know the child best, these assessments [e.g.,
anecdotal records, performance assessments,
work sampling, etc.] may be more efficient and
may also facilitate the development of collabor-
ative partnerships. Results also provide a direct
and functional link to IFSP/IEP development,
curriculum planning, and implementation. The
information collected can easily be translated
for use in instruction. (DEC, 2007 p. 14)

Children who may not qualify for the specialized
education outlined in an IEP or ISFP but who have a
disability such as an illness, injury, or chronic condi-
tion such as asthma or allergies are also protected
under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and
the Americans with Disabilities Act. This provision
declares that all children with disabilities are entitled
to accommodations so that they may fully partici-
pate in public school activities. A “504” plan might
include such things as a wheelchair ramp, peanut-free
environment, or keeping an inhaler at school (U.S.
Department of Education, 2012).

Teachers play an integral role in the support
system for children and families with special
needs.

http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/hq9805.html

Describing Children’s Progress and Adapting the Curriculum Chapter 12

12.3 Describing Children’s Progress and Adapting
the Curriculum
As assessment data are collected, they must also be organized and stored so that this informa-
tion will be available for interpretation, analysis, and reporting purposes. Because assessment
products can represent a variety of materials, there are also different kinds of organizational
systems. Programs with integrated online assessment systems will have a means to enter and
store data and generate reports.

Organizing Data

The most common means for organizing early childhood assessment data is the portfolio,
which may include examples of any or all of the assessments described above. The window of
time a portfolio represents can vary considerably. For example, you might assemble a portfolio
of artifacts to document one thematic or emergent group project, individual portfolios for
one area of focus such as writing, or a comprehensive portfolio that tracks a child’s general
progress for an entire year.

Portfolios provide powerful holistic evi-
dence of learning because they include
documentation of both process and
products and demonstrate growth,
change, and potential. Teachers have
multiple sources of information to deter-
mine how the curriculum is working as
they make planning decisions. Most of
the samples in a portfolio are selected
by the teacher. However, allowing and
even encouraging children to choose
some of their own samples is another
means for children to be involved in the
process and can reveal useful insights
about their thinking. Families can also
be included in the construction of a
portfolio, since they may be able to
provide examples of things children do
at home to supplement those collected
at school.

For instance, Ms. Mary was having difficulty collecting art samples from a child who routinely
preferred the block and math centers or doing things that involved high levels of physical
activity and the opportunity to interact with friends. In conversation with the child’s mother,
she learned that at home, as an only child in a neighborhood without many other children
to play with, he often did spend a great deal of time drawing and coloring. She was able to
contribute samples of artwork that provided his teacher with important information.

The amount of material included in a portfolio, particularly one assembled over a year, will
vary, and storing the file can be a challenge. Teachers often use expanding files or a crate
with file folders. Fortunately the increasing availability of technologies provides options for
scanning and digital data storage that don’t require the physical space of traditional folios.

Early childhood educators commonly organize assessment
information and artifacts in an individual portfolio for each
child.

Describing Children’s Progress and Adapting the Curriculum Chapter 12

Portfolios intended to be kept for multiple years typically require selecting a few artifacts that
best represent progress, such as a drawing from the beginning and end of the year or a piece
of writing that represents the highest technical quality achieved by a child.

Interpreting and Analyzing Data

Your interpretation and analysis of the assessment data you collect will be purposely targeted
to match curriculum and developmental goals. Many programs use a comprehensive develop-
mental checklist to provide families with an overall picture of the child’s growth over time in
multiple domains and specific information about strengths or needs.

Since early learning standards based on the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) recom-
mendations are developmentally based and organized by domain, the indicators in these
documents can be very helpful in the absence of commercially produced assessments that
may accompany a curriculum. For instance, in one program teachers converted the criteria in
the state’s early learning standards to a master checklist, as Figure 12.1 illustrates.

Figure 12.1: Excerpt from South Carolina Early Learning Standards Checklist for 2-Year-Olds

In this example, developmental indicators from the state’s early learning standards have been con-
verted to a format that can be used as a checklist.

Date Example/Evidence

Developmental Indicators

Calls to caregiver to watch activities; very proud to show off
abilities to special adults.

Tells caregiver about experiences; details increase with age.

Calls to caregiver for help when frustrated.

Tests limits, particularly with trusted adults, to see what
response will be given.

Seeks adult help to get something another child has (around
24 months).

Works with caregiver to solve problems (around 30 months).

SELF-AWARENESS

Date Example/Evidence

Comments on hair color, skin color, clothing or language dif-
ferent from own.

Knows first and last name.

Wants to do things by self.

Seeks adult attention; Says, “Look at me!” to show skills.

Demonstrates strong opinions about likes and dislikes.

Repeats words provided by caregiver.

Labels feelings: “I am happy.” “I am mad.”

Wants to do many things on own.

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
GOAL: The child will develop trusting relationships with important adults, express a

confident sense of self, and learn to control self.

BUILDING TRUST
STANDARD: The child demonstrates strong, secure relationships with adults who

love and care for them.

STANDARD: The child demonstrates growing awareness of personal preferences and abilities.

Describing Children’s Progress and Adapting the Curriculum Chapter 12

As you review observation data, anecdotal records, work
samples, skills assessments, and so forth, you are look-
ing for evidence that allows you to document that a goal
has been met or a developmental benchmark achieved.
Sometimes teachers develop a coding system that pro-
vides a kind of shorthand for noting evidence. For exam-
ple, you might refer to anecdotal records as “AR1, AR2,”
or dated drawings as “D11/3, D3/4.” These abbreviations
can then be entered in different places on a global devel-
opmental assessment. One assessment artifact might
provide evidence for multiple indicators, or you might
need multiple artifacts to document a single criterion.
Summarized data from individual child checklists or pro-
files can be aggregated to a profile for the group, helpful
for seeing interests, strengths, and needs and for plan-
ning adaptations to the curriculum.

Reporting and Sharing Results

Teachers have many ways of reporting and sharing
assessment results that may be predetermined by pro-
gram or school policies or established independently by
each teacher. Written reports that summarize assessment
results for a given period of time are often distributed to
families. The best way to share and explain assessment
results, discuss a child’s development and learning, and
encourage parent participation in setting goals or identifying needs is to schedule a face-to-
face meeting with the family members.

However, parent-teacher conferences held once or twice a year should not be the only means
of communication. As discussed in Chapter 5, establishing and maintaining respectful ongo-
ing relationships with each of your families is a critical component of an effective assessment
system.

Adapting the Curriculum

As teachers compile and analyze assessment data, they make decisions about how to adapt or
modify the curriculum and choose materials and strategies to diversify activities and instruc-
tion to meet identified needs and interests. In the broadest sense, this might mean, for exam-
ple, rotating materials out of activity areas that you observe children are no longer interested
in and replacing them with different ones that complement new inquiry themes, general
advancement of skill levels, or materials specifically requested by children.

More specifically, you will use assessment information to plan adaptations for individual chil-
dren. Strategies for doing so and representative examples include:

• Planning small-group activities for children with similar skill levels (e.g., Anna Bess,
Mario, and Katie will play a word game that requires identification of beginning letter
sounds “p”, “k”, and “g”; Camden, Catherine, Adi, and Holland will use knowledge
of beginning letter sounds to match all consonants with corresponding picture cards;

Face-to-face interactions such as a
parent-teacher conference give teachers
the opportunity to include families in a
long-term conversation about the growth
and learning of each child.

Curriculum and Program Evaluation Chapter 12

Timmy and Noah will continue working on dictating dialogue for play they have been
working on all week).

• Providing options within an activity to accommodate different skill or interest lev-
els (e.g., 3-year-olds have multiple materials for the construction of collages with
fall theme; children can cut, tear, use hole punchers, glue sticks, papers of different
weights, precut shapes, stamps, etc.; the light table in toddler class has colored straws
for three children to sort; water beads in a bowl for four others, and shaving cream
inside Zip-Loc bags for two others who are resistant to working with squishy things
that are wet).

• Individualized directed instruction (e.g., working with Blake on scissor cutting).

• Providing opportunities for independent work (e.g., designating Charlie and Rosie to
set up the balance scale, find materials of equivalent weight, and record their results
on the observation chart).

12.4 Curriculum and Program Evaluation
Insights gained from the assessment of individual children will tell you a lot about how the
curriculum is working. One of the problems, from a developmentally appropriate perspective,
with standardized testing in public schools and programs is that they often result in limiting
curriculum opportunities in favor of “teaching to the test” (Branscombe, 2003; Gullo, 2006;
Lambert, Abbott-Shim, & Sibley, 2006). There are however, systems for the global assess-
ment of an early childhood curriculum that are consistent with developmentally appropriate
principles. These processes include licensing and regulatory structures, program accreditation,
and environmental assessments.

Licensing and Regulatory Structures

Each state has child-care licensing regulations that describe what is minimally acceptable in a
curriculum (Lambert, Abbott-Shim, & Sibley, 2006). Typically regulations require that teachers
provide a safe and healthy environment, planned daily program of developmentally appropri-
ate activities, balance of indoor and outdoor activities, quiet and active times, and limited use
of media such as TV and computers.

Increasingly, states are engaging in the national Quality Rating and Improvement Systems
(QRIS) initiative, which is supported with resources provided by various organizations, includ-
ing NAEYC (2005). NAEYC reports in their QRIS Toolkit, published in 2010, that more than
twenty-one states had established QRIS systems with at least twenty-two more in the pro-
cess of doing so. As part of a comprehensive approach to providing standards, account-
ability, outreach, financial incentives, and consumer education, states establish requirements
for curricula that are much more specific than those found in older versions of child-care
regulations.

While each state is free to develop its own vision of assessment or measurement, options
presently include program standards, state-level approval of specific curriculum models (see
the feature box in Chapter 2), use of environmental rating scales, and multitiered rating
systems, which reward programs that complete an accreditation process. If you work in a
state that currently has or is developing a QRIS, you will have access to specific tools to moni-
tor and continue to improve the quality of your curriculum.

Curriculum and Program Evaluation Chapter 12

Early Education Program Standards

Program standards are different from early learning stan-
dards in that they apply to all dimensions of the program,
including curriculum, whereas early learning standards
are written as expectations for individual children. States
that provide program standards will include a set of global
indicators for curriculum. For example, the Massachusetts
Standards for 3- and 4-Year-Old Programs include a sec-
tion on curriculum with multiple criteria for each of the
following:

• Opportunities for curriculum planning

• Curriculum based on information about children

• Educational goals that promote concrete learning

• Adapting goals to meet individual needs

• Adapting curriculum based on the assessment of
individual children

• Flexible structure

• Flexible and predictable daily routines

• Smooth, unregimented transitions between activities

• Quiet activities

• Opportunities to develop self-help skills

• Parental input about curriculum (Massachusetts
Department of Education, 2003, pp. 9–12)

Accreditation

The NAEYC Academy was established in 1985 to provide the first comprehensive volun-
tary accreditation process, which was most recently revised in 2005. Subsequently, accredi-
tation processes have been developed by other organizations including the National Early
Childhood Program Accreditation and the National Accreditation Commission for Early Care
and Education Programs.

Accreditation is a fee-based multistage long-term process focused on the self-study of pro-
gram and teacher practices. The program personnel document and report staff qualifications
and produce evidence about how their curriculum, teaching practices, and other dimensions
such as relationships with families, meet the accreditation standards. A trained professional
visits the site to verify the accuracy of the program report. Typically teachers are most involved
in documenting how they meet criteria related to curriculum, assessment, environments, and
working with families.

Accreditation is designed to promote ongoing improvement through a multiyear renewal
cycle. Standards are research-based. They are written so that the process of documenting
how all parts of the program meet each standard provides information and opportunities for
teachers to closely examine and strengthen their curriculum and practices. Figure 12.2 pro-
vides an example of how teachers of three different age groups answered the same sample
NAEYC accreditation criteria.

State regulations for child-care pro-
grams always include regular facility
inspections to ensure that the chil-
dren’s environment is safe and healthy
and that it has a developmentally
appropriate curriculum.

http://www.naeyc.org/accreditation

Home Page

https://www.earlylearningleaders.org/

Curriculum and Program Evaluation Chapter 12

Figure 12.2: Examples from an NAEYC Accreditation Folio

The NAEYC Standard 2 Curriculum includes many criteria that the teacher documents by providing a narra-
tive explanation and supporting evidence in the form of images or artifacts.

1.C.: Helping Children Make Friends
1.C.03: Teaching staff support children as they practice social skills and build friendships by
helping them enter into, sustain, and enhance play.

Age Group Narrative Response Evidence

Toddler Class Great effort is made to support children as
they build friendships and negotiate play
relationships. This is done through a variety
of methods including the following: 1) Large
Group Time—We often have discussions about
what being a good friend looks like, how to
initiate play with another child and how to, in a
nice way, say that you don’t want to play. The
children take turns role-playing these different
scenarios; 2) Modeling—Often times when
we see children struggling with friends we will
assist by demonstrating appropriate language
and behavior necessary for play. 3) Literature
Models—We read books to the children which
demonstrate good friendships.

The teacher
leads the children
in a game of
ring-around-the-
rosey while on
our playground.

3-Year-Old
Class

Each day during our Free Choice time in the
classroom and on the playground, the teachers
interact and play with the children to help
them stay on task, to encourage socialization
between classmates and teachers, and to help
solve problems.

The teacher
assists a group of
children working
on a floor puzzle
together.

4/5K Class Great effort is made to support children as
they build friendships and negotiate play
relationships. This is done through a variety
of ways including the following: 1) Morning
Meetings—We read books and have discus-
sions about what being a good friend looks like,
how to initiate play with another child and how
to, in a nice way, say that you don’t want to
play. The children take turns role-playing these
different scenarios: 2) Matching—With some
children who are new to the program or just
have not been successful in developing friend-
ships we will try to pair that particular child
with someone who has common interests or
someone who might serve as a mentor or act
as a protégé: 3) Modeling—Often times when
we see children struggling with friends we will
assist by joining in play and demonstrating
appropriate language and behavior necessary
for play; and 4) Literature Models—We read
books to the children which demonstrate good
friendships.

This example of a filled-out form identifies that a
particular child is having trouble cooperating with his
peers. It identifies our plan for the next week to help
him in this area.

Technology in the Curriculum Chapter 12

Environmental Rating Scales

Prior to the launch of the 1985 NAEYC accreditation process, Thelma Harms and Richard
Clifford of the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) Frank Porter Graham Child Development
Institute developed the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS). This was expanded
to a series of Environment Rating Scales (ERSs) that have since been revised. They include the
ECERS-R (Harms, Clifford, & Cryer, 2005) and versions for infants and toddlers (Harms, Cryer,
& Clifford, 2006), family child care (Harms, Cryer, & Clifford, 2007), and school-aged children
(Harms, Jacobs, & White, 1995). Each scale has between thirty-eight and forty-nine items
arranged in subscales that address different parts of the environment, including curriculum.

One of the distinguishing features of the ERS is that each criterion is scored on a rating scale
of 1 to 7, ranging from inadequate (1), minimal (3), and good (5) to excellent (7). Narrative
descriptions for each of the scoring indicators are unique to the item. The language is so pre-
cise that it provides both self-correcting information and a high level of interrater reliabil-
ity, ensuring that observational ratings will be consistent even when different people conduct
the assessment (Lambert, Abbot-Shim, & Sibley, 2006). For example, the “good” statement
for greeting in the ECERS-R reads, “Each child is greeted individually (e.g., staff say ‘hello’ and
use child’s name; use child’s primary language spoken at home to say ‘hello’)” (Harms, Clifford
& Cryer, 2005, p. 22). The ERS is available in Spanish and widely used across the United States
as a relatively quick and reliable means for gaining a measure of quality and information that
can be used for improvement.

The format of the ERS is so popular and user-friendly that other educators have devel-
oped similar scales to assess different age groups or particular aspects of the environment
or curriculum. These include the Assessment of Practices in Early Elementary Classrooms
(APEEC) by Hemmeter, Maxwell, Ault, and Schuster (2001), the Rating Observation Scale for
Inspiring Environments (Deviney, Duncan, Harris, Rody, & Rosenberry, 2010), and POEMS:
Preschool Outdoor Environment Measurement Scale (Hestenes, DeBord, Moore, Cosco, &
McGinnis, 2005).

12.5 Technology in the Curriculum
Technology today represents societal transition to an age driven by access to information and
products, social networking, and an increasing array of devices, integrated systems, and plat-
forms for delivery of technological processes and activities. Your ability to interact with this
text in Ebook format is evidence of this phenomenon.

The term technology is also relative. For example, when the forerunners of today’s copy
machines, the mimeograph and ditto, were first introduced and used in schools in the mid-
twentieth century, the ability to easily reproduce printed copy in classrooms produced dra-
matic changes. These machines enabled teachers to create a worksheet or handout on a
single stencil or ditto-master that could then be duplicated via an inked drum to print multiple
copies; thus the generic term dittos. Teachers prior to that time laboriously printed spelling
words, math problems, and other seat work each day on the blackboard for children to copy
by hand on their own papers.

With this one technological advance, curriculum materials changed significantly to include
preprinted masters for teachers to copy and distribute. Thus teacher time once spent creating
board work became available for other activities, and teachers could arrange desks (which

http://ers.fpg.unc.edu/

Technology in the Curriculum Chapter 12

previously had to be aligned so that all desks faced the board) and other classroom furniture
in different ways. Classrooms now feature wipe-off whiteboards and, increasingly, electronic
smart boards not as the central means for instruction but one of many kinds of resources
for teaching.

As yet we have no way of knowing the full impact of modern technologies on the future of
education and specifically early childhood education, curriculum, and assessment practices.
But we do know that technology is the focus of a great deal of research and dialogue about
its potential effects and challenges.

Using Technology with Children

In 2012 NAEYC and the Fred Rogers Center (FRC) for Early Learning and Children’s Media at
Saint Vincent College released a revised position statement on using technology with young
children. The statement reflected the views, research, and experiences of experts and early
childhood practitioners. While, before the advent of interactive technologies, the NAEYC has
always promoted a developmentally appropriate stance, there were concerns among many
early childhood educators who felt pressured to use software-based programs with young
children. These programs, the educators pointed out, promoted rote learning and passive
skill/drill activity in place of the active, play-based concrete experiences supported in devel-
opmental research.

The potential applications of current technologies greatly expand the options teachers have
to enhance rather than replace elements of the curriculum (Bers & Horn, 2010; Linder, 2012;
McManis & Gunnewig, 2012; Parnell & Bartlett, 2012; Shifflet, Toledo, & Mattoon, 2012; U.S.
Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology, 2017). A divide continues to
exist between children who grow up as digital natives—that is, those who have had ready

access to and experience with technologies
(Rosen, 2006; Yelland, 2010)—and those
with limited or no access to twenty-first-
century technology. Classrooms are a logi-
cal context for providing equitable access
and helping all children develop the tech-
nological proficiencies they will need to be
successful in American society today (Wang,
2010; U.S. Department of Education, Office
of Educational Technology, 2017). Further,
the challenge of promoting digital liter-
acy (National Institute for Literacy, 2008) is
complicated when early childhood educa-
tors also face issues or a lack of resources
affecting their access to technology.

Developmentally appropriate technology
use (DATU) involves “the use of tools and
strategies in ways that capitalize on chil-
dren’s natural desire to actively, collabora-
tively construct knowledge, respecting the

The use of emerging technologies by young children
can be developmentally appropriate.

Technology in the Curriculum Chapter 12

unique challenges presented by children’s levels of development across all developmental
domains” (Rosen & Jaruszewicz, 2009, p. 164). The new position statement emphasizes the
important role of adults in making appropriate decisions; it also places stress on active rather
than passive involvement and on teacher education and professional development. Planning
activities with technology must also be adapted to support children with linguistic challenges
and special needs (Connecticut Office of Early Childhood, 2016; NAEYC/FRC, 2012; Simon &
Nemeth, 2012). An ethical framework that protects children from potential exposure to online
abuse (Beach, 2010; Croll & Kunze, 2010) should also be kept in mind.

The NAEYC/FRC (2012) and others recommend that teachers and caregivers follow the
American Academy of Pediatrics 2010 guidelines, which prohibit the use of passive devices
for children younger than age 2; they also recommend that early childhood educators con-
sider the amount of screen time at school or care in the context of additional time spent with
television or computers elsewhere, particularly at home (Hill, n.d.; Simon & Nemeth, 2012).
In addition to the assessment of learning in other domains, teachers should also document
children’s emerging digital competencies (Rosen & Jaruszewicz, 2009).

Technology for Teachers

The range of technology tools that teachers can use to support, enhance, and document the
curriculum and learning is increasingly broad, although they may continue to use older tech-
nologies as well. For instance, a teacher may be reluctant to give up an overhead projector
because she uses it to enlarge images on the wall for tracing, or children make extensive use
of it for pantomime, shadow pictures, and as a makeshift light table. Similarly, while an MP3
player is readily available, she might continue to provide a pushbutton cassette tape recorder
that children can use independently to make audiotapes of themselves reading, which she
later uses for assessment purposes.

Since many kinds of computers are no longer restricted to desktops, the increasing array of
portable laptops, tablets, iPads, and Ereaders as well as mobile communications devices such
as smartphones, offer opportunities to work on computers with children in any location. For
example, an iPad can go on a field trip to document or search online for information about
fish species seen at the aquarium, or a teacher might use a built-in camera to record inter-
views with children about a performance they have attended or send a message from children
to families from an off-site location.

An increasing number of schools and classrooms have installed interactive whiteboards
that provide computer capability for software and online access in a vertical format for
both teachers and children to use. Digital cameras and uploaded software make it possible
to document daily activities, videotape children for assessment purposes, translate images
into products such as books or digital stories, and share images with families. Scanners,
digital copiers, online access, and electronic communications make it possible to stream-
line data management, lesson or activity planning, and share information with families
and others.

As the ditto and mimeograph machines freed teachers from the front of the room and the
chalkboard, modern technology offers teachers the opportunity to reenvision their programs
as schools without walls.

Growing as a Curriculum Decision Maker Chapter 12

12.6 Growing as a Curriculum Decision Maker
This text has focused on five elements key to developing an integrated teaching philosophy:

1. The purpose of early childhood education

2. How young children learn

3. The role of those who participate in the education of young children

4. The characteristics and content of curriculum

5. How to implement curriculum effectively

We have also emphasized the importance of continual intentional reflection about these fac-
tors. You know that your work will be shaped and influenced by the context in which you
teach or care for children, the needs and interests of your children and families, and evolving
public policy and sociocultural factors. The classroom or care setting is not just a place where
children will develop and learn: it’s also a laboratory for your continued learning and develop-
ment. Several ideas can guide you in this journey:

• The way you approach teaching emerges from the way you experienced learning but is
not bound by it.

• Others have informed early childhood education in the past, but you have a role in
conceptualizing the curriculum of the future.

• Reflecting on your experiences should provoke more questions than answers.

• Planning for curriculum should be informed by insights about how the curriculum is
experienced by children.

• Continual examination of your assumptions about learners, your role, and curriculum is
at the core of intentional reflection about your teaching.

Finally, your influence on the children, families, and colleagues you work with will extend
beyond any curriculum you develop or implement. Teaching is unique among the professions;
you will remember children long after they have left your classroom or care and they will
remember you as someone who has played an important role in their lives. You will learn as
much from them as they do from you. Teaching gives those of us who choose it the opportu-
nity for a professional life that is both challenging and fulfilling.

Teachers are patient; they realize that the return on their efforts is often not realized for years
or decades. As Rachel Carson stated in The Sense of Wonder (1965), the last book she wrote:

If I had influence with the good fairy, who is supposed to preside over the christen-
ing of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of
wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote
against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation
with things that are artificial, the alienation from sources of our strength. If a child
is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gift from the fairies, he
needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with
him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.

Posttest Chapter 12

Chapter Summary
• A developmentally appropriate approach to assessment is comprehensive, systematic,

and focused on learning and development.

• Objectivity is critically important to ensure assessment information is reliable and
accurate.

• Research has documented the limitations of using standardized testing with young
children, although norm-referenced measures can be useful sources of information
when combined with other more authentic measures and strategies.

• Teachers rely on many tools, such as anecdotal and running records, checklists, skills
assessments, and tallies to record their observations of children in the classroom or
care setting.

• Teachers use data from observational tools, interviews with children, and analysis of
artifacts to construct a picture of what each individual child knows and can do and
communicate effectively with families about their strengths and needs.

• Teachers play an important role in the identification, referral, and support of children
with special needs and their families, and they use assessment information to adapt
the curriculum for individual children.

• Global measures such as state program standards, accreditation processes, and envi-
ronmental rating scales are increasingly being applied in early childhood across the
United States to assess program quality.

• Curriculum evaluation processes offer a valuable professional development opportu-
nity for teachers to document and strengthen their practices.

• An important consideration for teachers as they continue to assess and reflect on their
practices is access to and the role of technology in the curriculum of the future.

• Technologies can be used in developmentally appropriate ways to expand learning
opportunities for young children and teachers.

• Ongoing reflection about the purpose of early childhood education, how children
learn, the roles of teachers and families, curriculum content, and strategies provides a
cohesive framework for the continued development of a teaching philosophy.

Posttest

1. The primary goal of a developmentally appropriate approach to assessment is:

a. To know what your children need to do to master the curriculum.

b. To inform your practices so that the curriculum matches the needs and interests of
the children.

c. To report standardized test scores to the state.

d. To meet the accountability requirements of your position or job.

2. Which of the following statements is an example of objective language in an anecdotal
record?

a. Jamison jumped off the climber.

b. Susie isn’t very good at eating with a spoon yet.

c. Mikey snapped the top three of the four snaps on his jacket.

Posttest Chapter 12

d. Tessa played well today.

3. Standardized tests are norm-referenced, which means:

a. Individual scores are compared to the scores of the group of children who are being
tested.

b. Each score compares to a desired goal, or criterion.

c. Individual scores reflect a comparison to the mean or average score of a larger pop-
ulation similar to the group being tested.

d. Individual scores are graded on a curve.

4. Which of the following is not an example of “real-time” authentic assessment?

a. Anecdotal record.

b. Running record.

c. Tally.

d. Performance assessment.

5. One of the advantages of a portfolio for assessment purposes is that it provides:

a. Portability.

b. Holistic information.

c. A snapshot in time.

d. An alternative to authentic assessment.

6. The preferred means for communicating assessment results to families is:

a. A face-to-face conference.

b. Email the test scores.

c. Send a comprehensive written report in the mail.

d. Scan all original assessment documents and keep them in the school archives so
families can come in and view any time.

7. Licensing regulations for child-care programs often consist of:

a. Rigorous standards to ensure the best possible program.

b. Playground safety to reduce liability risk.

c. Assessment and accountability systems.

d. Minimally acceptable standards for health, safety, and curriculum.

8. Accreditation standards typically follow a multistep process focused primarily on:

a. Screening out low-quality programs so parents will know which ones to choose.

b. Providing programs and teachers an opportunity to examine and strengthen their
practices.

c. Allowing teachers the chance to use emerging technologies to document their
curriculum.

d. Creating a national accountability system for child-care programs.

9. Using technology with young children is appropriate when characterized by:

a. Designated amounts of screen time each day for all children.

Answers and Rejoinders to Pretest Chapter 12

b. A technology curriculum that makes sure all children have access to electronic
games, smart boards, and keyboarding experience.

c. Active engagement in activities that enhance but do not replace other elements of
the curriculum.

d. Never using technology with children as it is harmful to their cognitive development
before the age of 5.

10. Continued reflection on practices is helpful because:

a. Teaching is a legacy passed on from one teacher to another.

b. Since the field is driven by the “big thinkers” of the past, your role is to apply their
ideas in the best possible way.

c. Reflecting on your experiences should answer all your questions.

d. Planning for curriculum should be informed by insights about how the curriculum is
experienced by both you and your students.

Answers: 1 (b); 2 (c); 3 (c); 4 (a); 5 (b); 6 (a); 7 (d); 8 (b); 9 (c); 10 (d)

Discussion Questions

1. You know that early childhood educators are wary of using standardized tests with
young children; how can early childhood teachers further the conversation about this
issue?

2. Imagine you have strong assessment evidence that one of your students needs further
evaluation for autism spectrum. You are pretty sure the family will be resistant to the
idea of referral. What kind of approach would you take to make sure the child gets
appropriate supports?

3. Now that we are at the end of this book, how have your ideas about your role as an
early childhood educator changed or grown over time?

Answers and Rejoinders to Pretest

1. False. The teacher is critical to the process of planning and implementing any kind of
assessment system.

2. False. Standardized tests are considered developmentally inappropriate in most instances
for children in the early childhood years.

3. True. Assessment information guides teacher decision making so the curriculum can
respond to the needs and interests of children.

4. True. Program evaluations provide information about how the curriculum is working
and opportunities for teachers to examine their practices.

5. True. While technologies should not be indiscriminately used with young children, there
are many ways they can be implemented or applied effectively.

6. False. Reflection should be a lifelong dimension of a teacher’s professional life.

Key Terms Chapter 12

Key Terms

Achievement test Norm-referenced test that measures what a person knows

Accreditation Process involving self-study and documentation about how a program
meets comprehensive quality standards

Artifact Concrete product generated by a child such as a drawing or writing sample, or
photograph of concrete product such as block construction, saved by teacher to use for
assessment purposes

Authentic assessment Assessments that occur in natural settings with tools that are not
norm-referenced

Coding Using a notation system to organize assessment artifacts

Criterion referencing Measuring a child’s performance against specific outcomes or
objectives rather than comparison to a larger population of children

DATU Acronym for developmentally appropriate technology use, an extension of the
principles of developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) to using technologies with young
children

Digital literacy Development of skills, paralleling those of early literacy, that demonstrate
awareness of communication with digital devices

Digital natives Term that refers to children who grow up with access to technologies

Environmental rating scale An assessment that uses a sliding numerical scale to denote
performance or achievement

Formal assessment A test that expresses performance in terms of norm-referenced scores
and administration according to a strict, uniform protocol

Formative assessment Ongoing evaluation

Informal assessment Use of authentic or alternative tools and strategies

Intelligence deviation Expressing an intelligence test score in comparison with others
who took the same test

Intelligence quotient Expressing an intelligence test score in terms of mental age com-
pared with chronological age

Intelligence test A standardized measure that assesses learning capacity and mental
ability

Interrater reliability The probability that consistent results will be achieved regardless of
who conducts an environmental assessment

Learning artifacts Samples of actual work produced by children

Norm-referenced Referring to a test designed to report individual scores in comparison
with a larger population selected to be representative of all those who will take the test

References Chapter 12

Objectivity Recording, reporting, or assessing without bias

Observation Assessment data obtained through close attention to children as they work
and play

Portfolio A collection of artifacts and assessment results intended to provide evaluation
based on multiple sources of data

Program standards A set of criteria intended for the comprehensive evaluation of all ele-
ments of a program, including curriculum

Rubric A scoring tool that includes criteria based on observable behaviors

Screen A standardized measure that provides evidence of possible deviations from normal
development or behavior

Skills assessment Direct observation of specific skills during either normal activity or con-
structed situations

Standardized tests Norm-referenced assessments/tests

Summative assessment An evaluation that provides a report of cumulative achievement
for a particular period of time, such as the end of a teaching unit or a school year

Work sampling The process of collecting individual learning artifacts over time

References

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Branscombe, N. A., Castle, K., Dorsey, A. G., Surbeck, E., & Taylor, J. B. (2003). Early child-
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References Chapter 12

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Information Age.

· Week 3 – Instructor Guidance

Weekly Learning Outcomes

1. Describe effective methods for instruction and assessment in early childhood settings.

2. Explain ways to communicate assessment results with families.

3. Use assessment data to create a curriculum plan for a child.

Week 3 Overview

In this third week of ECE203 we will be focusing our attention on the important topic of assessment. We will extend our discussion from week two regarding developmentally appropriate practices into developmentally appropriate assessment strategies. We will also connect documentation and planning in assessment.

As educators or caregivers one of the most important responsibilities we have is to accurately assess those children in our care. This process of “collecting information about children’s development, learning, behavior, academic progress, need for special services, and attainment” is at the forefront of decision making (Morrison, 2009). The biggest of those decisions is how to progress with instruction. We might ask ourselves, what does each of our students need individually, and what are their needs as a collective group? How can we plan effectively to meet those varied needs while still upholding the curriculum set forth by our schools or centers, as well as the state and national standards? These important questions (plus so many more) revolve around our ability to properly assess children in ways that supports their learning.

As you can see this third week contains some important information. So, let’s get started!

How does teacher use of student assessment data change instructional practice? (Links to an external site.)

Discussion 1: Developmentally Appropriate Assessment

An important role of teachers and caregivers is linking assessment and curriculum to guide planning and decision making (Kostelnik, Rupiper, Soderman, and Whiren, 2014, p. 15). During the first two weeks of class we have discussed in depth the need to plan according to the individual needs of our students. We have learned ways to get to know our students’ interests, backgrounds, cultures, etc.

However, only through assessing children can we get an accurate picture of their academic needs and strengths.

Assessment provides us with yet another tool to inform our instruction and planning and “provides practical, ongoing information and evidence to guide what you choose to do” (Jaruszewicz, 2019, section 12.1). As stated above, our role is to link assessment, curriculum and planning together. To link these together, we must align our assessments “with learning standards as well as the goals and content of the curriculum” (section 12.1). Our findings can then be “used to modify activities and practices to advance the development of each child” (section 12.1).

As teachers and caregivers, we must ensure that the assessments we use are appropriate for the child’s age and developmental stage and is individually and culturally appropriate (Kostelnik, 2014, p.15). That is truly what is at the heart of developmentally appropriate assessment.

Observing Young Children (Links to an external site.)

One of the key forms of assessment for young children is the informal method of observation. The reason for this is that young children are typically not developmentally ready or equipped to handle consistent use of more formal types of assessment. “Widespread implementation of standardized testing with children under the age of 8, especially if not balanced with the holistic data that informal assessments provide, is considered developmentally inappropriate” (NAEYC/NAECS/SDE, 2003, as cited in Jaruszewicz, 2019, section 12.2). Observation is a developmentally appropriate option if you take certain developmental factors of young children into consideration. According to Kostelnik, 2014, p.61:

· Young children have immature language skills. They have limited ability to follow oral directions, read printed instructions, or express themselves adequately in words.

· Children are sensitive to the setting, the timing, and the people involved in the assessment process. The more can design your assessment to document what children are doing naturally in your classroom, the more it is likely that assessment outcomes will be accurate.

· Children tire quickly and are easily distracted.

· Children have no concept of the importance of assessment and may have little understanding or interest in doing well.

Based on these factors, can you see why informal methods such as observation-based assessments are so widely used in early childhood? Table 12.3: Observation-Based Assessments in your course text provides an in-depth look into each of the observation–based assessment techniques that you will need to examine for this discussion.

Observation: The Primary Tool in Assessment (Links to an external site.)

is an article that gives more insight on viewing the whole child when observing. This includes gathering all the information such as what materials were used, and strategies on when to find opportunities to observe. This article is a valuable resource as you continue to work on your observational skills.

Initial Post: Your initial post should include the following:

· Select one informal assessment from Table 12.3 of the text

· Discuss why you feel it is an effective form of assessment to use in your future role as an educator.

· Review all the informal assessment tools from table 12.3 and choose the one that makes sense to you. Ask yourself, why did I choose this informal assessment? What did this one stand out to me? What about makes me feel that this is a useful tool? This is what you are going to explain to your reader. The thought process behind choosing your tool.

· As an educator, imagine you have just administered the assessment. Describe how specifically you will use this measurement to make instructional decisions about curriculum. Support your choices with the course text.

· After you have administered the assessment, think about how your student’s may have performed. If they performed well, would you continue with the same lesson plan format and curriculum? If students performed below standard, would you change the way that the lesson is taught? How would this assessment impact the way you teach?

· Explain how you will share the assessment results with families considering the following:

· How will you communicate with them (e.g. e-mail, phone calls, etc.)

· How will you explain the results?

· In what ways is your approach inclusive of family, culture and individual differences?

· Home school connection is vital in education. How would you communicate with your families regarding assessment results? Many programs now offer APPS for mobile devices that allow parents to have instant communication with teachers. Consider communication methods such as classroom DOJO, a parent portal on the school website, or perhaps a direct link for parents to email you.

Guided Response: Read several peers’ responses and choose two peers who selected a different assessment than you. Compare the assessments. Your responses must address the following questions:

· How are the assessments alike?

· How are the assessments different?

· What are the strengths of your peer’s chosen assessment?

· What are the weaknesses of your peer’s chosen assessment?

· How can both assessments inform instructional decisions?

· Looking at the assessments your peers have chosen and really analyzing their work will help your growth as an educator. Take time to view their assessments in detail as might be an assessment you want to consider using in the future.

Assignment : Assessment Case Study

For your assignment, this week you are focusing your attention on observation, “one of the most widely used methods of assessment” (Morrison, 2009). Observation is defined as “the intentional, systematic act of looking at the behavior of a child in a particular setting, program, or situation” (p. 69). It might surprise you to know the number of new teachers who feel that observation is “simple” because it just involves watching. This could not be further from the truth behind what observation is. In fact, if you reread the definition provided above, you will notice the word “systematic” is used. Morrison (2009) states, “the significance and importance of critical behaviors may go undetected if observation is done casually and is limited to unsystematic looking” (p. 69). Teachers must have a plan for how to conduct observation on any given day, but also overall in their classrooms (you will be tackling this very thing this week). Subsequently, another mistake in thought process is that observation is only used to determine if a child is grasping a skill. The video below provides more information on how to observe when assessing children.
Observing With Purpose: Observing Young Children’s Learning and Development (Links to an external site.)
As teachers and caregivers, if you strive to find concrete information out about your students to use in planning, reporting, or conferencing with families, observation is a crucial part of this! As your text shows, there is a definite process to observing your students, as well as many varied types of observation. That is where your work starts for this assignment.
Consider the following scenario: You are an educator that has finished collecting assessment data on a child, Anna Smith, in your program or classroom. You must now must create a curriculum plan based on Anna Smith’s Assessment Evaluation.
For your assignment, include the following:
· Introduction (0.5 Points): Write a succinct introduction that informs the reader of the topic of the assignment and its organization. Remember, an effective essay introduction tells the reader what you will say.
· What have you chosen to write about and why? This introduction should tell us what this essay will be about. What are you going to teach me about today?
· Assessment Observations (3 Points): In one to two paragraphs, describe the observations that you made from the data on Anna Smith using several examples from the assessments.
· What did you notice about Anna Smith during the observation? What was her learning like? What were her responses like? Where there notes on her body movements? Give the reader a description.
· Child Observations (3 Points): In three to four paragraphs, describe the strengths and areas of opportunity (i.e., weaknesses) for Anna Smith based on the assessment data.
· Remember an observation is not giving your opinion. It’s a retelling of the information based on what you saw (read). Based on the scenario, what are areas that Anna Smith did well in? Based on the scenario, where did she struggle? You are reporting on what you saw and interpreted, not on how you think Anna performed.
· Short-Term Goal (3 Points): In three to four paragraphs, explain three specific instructional decisions for a short-term goal for Anna Smith based on the data analysis.
· Now is your opportunity to use your creativity. What are three things you can do as Anna Smith’s teacher, immediately to help her with her learning? These are things that you can implement in the next week or so, that will help Anna’s academic performance improve?
· Long-Term Goal (3 Points): In one to two paragraphs, explain one specific long-term goal for Anna Smith based on the data analysis.
· What is something that you feel Anna Smith should work on as the year progresses? This is something that you won’t see an improvement in right away. Choose something that you could reassess in six months to a year from now. A long-term goal is something that Anna Smith will take time to master, so it cannot be assessed right away.
· Conclusion (0.5 Points): Write a succinct conclusion that informs the reader of the main points from the assignment. Remember, an effective essay conclusion tells the reader what you have said in a summary.
The introduction told the reader what you wanted to write about and why you chose it. Now you are going to tell the reader the outcome of what you wrote about. How will Anna Smith benefit from your short term and long term goals? How has learning about this observational assessment process helped you as an educator? The conclusion ties your writing all together. It finishes your body of work. What idea do you want your reader to walk away with?

“Observation, very general and wide-spread, has shown that small children are endowed with a special psychic nature. This shows us a new way of imparting education!”- Maria Montessori

References
All images used under license from istock
Jaruszewicz, C. (2019). Curriculum and Methods for Early Childhood Educators. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (Original work published 2013)
Kostelnik, M., Rupiper, M., Soderman, A., & Whiren, A. (2014). Developmentally appropriate curriculum in action. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Morrison, G. (2009). Early childhood education today. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

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