What Should I Think about When Choosing an Assessment Tool for My Program?

Question

Answer

There are four critical questions to consider when using assessment tools: 

Is it a formal or informal assessment tool? Formal assessment is often planned. It's conducted with a tool that may be standardized in order to capture information about your child's learning in a set way. These tools will capture the same type of information about children in your setting, and you can make comparisons about the growth of children in your setting. Some formal tools won't allow you to spontaneously capture learning or children's knowledge and skills beyond what the school assesses. They tend to be formulaic and highly structured. You have to follow the instructions. There may be some adaptations that they permit, but in general, you have to stay within the lines that have been drawn for that formal assessment.

In contrast, informal assessment is a way to gather data about a child within the context of their play and their learning. You're able to observe them within the environment and allow them to do what they're going to do naturally. Observation and the tools you use to collect them serve as informal assessments. You can also use child samples or photos, videos, or portfolios to gather this informal assessment data. These tools allow you to catch learning in authentic ways. They allow you to follow the child and capture moments of learning while they occur naturally.

One drawback of informal assessment is that it doesn't lend itself to specific skills at particular moments. In addition, it takes a lot of planning and effort to assess development in those specific skills. You have to create a detailed plan ahead of time and be very intentional about measuring those skills in a specific way if you're going to use informal assessment. For example, "On Friday, I'm going to plan a block area activity. I am going to watch how the children understand how shapes and weights fit together to create a large, tall structure. I'm also going to watch for language such as 'bigger, smaller, heavier, lighter." Furthermore, the informal assessment doesn't lend itself easily to making cross-child comparisons. As an administrator, you're going to have more challenges pulling together that informal data to understand the picture of your program and the picture of the classrooms in your program. Informal assessment can be more challenging because there is no consistent measure or standard for implementation. It just happens organically.

Is it standardized? Standardized assessment includes two critical components. You administer the same items to all of the children in your setting to ensure consistency across children, and you score each child's performance in the same way. All children are being assessed on the same skills and knowledge, using the same criteria to determine each child's ability, and the result of each child would be consistent no matter who administered the assessment. Standardized assessments must be valid (i.e., the tools measure what they say they will measure) and reliable (i.e., the tools offer consistent results across children and teachers).

Many federal and state programs require that you use standardized assessment, including home visiting, Head Start, and Early Head Start. If you work in a program that requires the use of standardized assessments, you must make sure that your staff is formally trained in using those tools. You have to hire an accredited trainer to come in and make sure that everyone knows how to properly and consistently use those standardized tools. As an administrator, you have to supervise and determine that those teachers are using the tools as intended. You also have to check in with them to make sure that they're analyzing the data in a consistent fashion. It's a deep and serious process. As you're planning your program structure, make sure that if you are using a standardized tool you're using it correctly.

Make sure that you select a standardized tool that meets your population. Standardized tools are great because they help you get a comprehensive picture of what's going on in your program across all of the classrooms and across all settings. However, you don't always leave room to be spontaneous when you use a standardized tool. As such, you may want to integrate some informal tools, because a child might not exhibit specific skills when doing the standardized assessment, which those informal tools will capture.

Is it evidence-based? Evidence-based tools are tools that have been piloted or tested and have evidence to show that they measure specific skills with specific populations. Most early education programs use these, often because they're required to, but also because they're the best tools to use. Evidence-based tools have a body of research to support them, regardless of whether the tools have been standardized, and they show effectiveness in gathering information. A portfolio assessment is a great example of an evidence-based tool that isn't standardized. They offer clear information about child growth when they're used appropriately. Note that if you're using an evidence-based tool, you need to read the fine print. You need to make sure that it has been pilot tested on a population that is similar to your own so that your teachers are capturing the right information about the children in your program. Some tools may not have been tested on different cultural, socioeconomic, ability, or language differences. Make sure that if you're using an evidence-based tool, it has been tested on a population similar to yours.

Is it practical? You want to make sure that the teachers in your program can use the tools that you have chosen. If they can't use them, you're not going to get the data that you need. If the tool is practical, it will fit into their lives. There are a couple of steps you can use to make sure that the tool that you choose is appropriate and practical. First, read the tool's instructions or guidance on how to use it and begin to ask yourself some questions. Determine how easy the tool would be for teachers to use. Administrators will often gather a committee of teachers together to talk about ease of use. Ask yourself if it will interpret teaching. Will the information be easy to share with families and others who have consented to use it? Will it help them plan? Will it help them understand children's progress? Will it help them engage families in a way that'll be supportive? As an administrator, make sure that you're going to be able to gather the information you need, not only to make programmatic decisions but also to report the required information to your funders and to licensing agencies, if appropriate. 

This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the course, Screening, Evaluation, and Assessment: A Guide for Administrators, by Amanda Schwartz, PhD.