The Article Summary
Early intervention, early childhood education, and early special education have received proliferation and have been supported by numerous research bodies. The bodies have provided support and funds publicly (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006a). Although the successes experienced brought concerns that ECE programs were not adequate, it is believed that a maximized need to rethink the affair between intervention and assessment. An assessment is carried out to determine the effectiveness of the intervention.
The role of Assessment in ECE is to evaluate popular services, thus enhancing service provision, quality, and utilization. About 42 states provide taxpayer-funded ECE to students who are at huge risk. Also, the assessment is associated with tracking services’ quality, use, and availability.
First off, school districts, ECE programs, and teachers can be held accountable for providing proper intervention by assessments (Kagan, 2003; Rous, Lobianco, Moffett, & Lund,2005). Assessments also play another role within the ECE program of identifying children with the need for extraordinary intervention and educational services in critical issues, thus having an impact on their abilities and developmental capabilities throughout the years they are in school. The children’s participation in ECE programs helps anchor the assessment needs for ultimate intervention.
Assessments provide educators with intervention skills in making attributes to the youth. The curriculum maximizes learning in schools and even preschools, therefore making children brighter, not only considering their age, gender, and background. Modification of efforts and intervention takes the credit of early childhood assessment, considering all the intended purposes in facilitating the child’s learning and development ability.
Assessment Methods used in ECE
Numerous methods are explained in layman’s language as standard testing, whereby work is rated and sampled. Then a review about the child’s high and low results follows. Teachers can alternatively rate the students by assigning rating and performance tests to measure their understanding and cognitive responses. For instance, children can make shapes and respond to specific verbal directions. The capability of solving problems can be assessed when a child’s scores in the developmental domain fall to more standard deviations.
Standardized testing allows for comparison with some normative samples, hence providing information on a particular child’s development. Therefore, assessment is the gauge for progression, but its disadvantage is that it undermines ways to intervene effectively (Bagnato, 2005; Macy et al., 2005; Neisworth & Bagnato, 1992, 2004; Strand et al., in press).
When difficulty is experienced in the assessment process, a method called primary difficulty solution is employed whereby the design and expense are conducted a year thrice. With this method, a teacher can track a child’s performance in the three phases. The facts compound the difficulty that various theoretical standardized tests relate to the functionality of the child’s intervention.
The mastery of a child can be assessed using familiarity stimulation without using the repeated direct performances that they undergo in-class assignments. The repeated execution enhances the child’s extended-term memory, hence the measurement of development growth. A formative assessment improves the child’s mastery skills, thus optimal intervention springs up out of it. From this analogy, assessment is directly linked to intervention.
In a nutshell, assessment can be used to improve intervention in a great deal. I agree that in assessment measurements should be restricted to variables with a quick response. Also, assessment should always have the ability to instantaneous information and desired results at a time, and all these crowns that early childhood assessment is vital in their development and over the response to matters in the future because they tend to grasp and apply the skills as adults.
References
United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.(2006a).Research and statistics: Head Start program fact sheet. Retrieved May 25, 2005, from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/hsb/research/2006.htm
Kagan, S. L. (2003). Children’s readiness for school: Issues in assessment.International Journal of Early Childhood, 35,114–120
Bagnato, S. J. (2005). The Authentic alternative for assessment in early intervention: An Emerging
evidence-based practice.Journal of Early Intervention,28,17–22
