Presenters: Stephanie Siddens, Director, Ohio Department of Education’s Office of Early Learning and School Readiness; and Tamara Otto, Senior Program Coordinator and Instructor, The Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Technology in Education.
- Ohio and Maryland are two of the nine states that have received funding from Race to the Top Early Childhood Challenge grant program. These two states are collaborating on the development of the Early Childhood Comprehensive Assessment System for Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten, which is expected to be of national interest.
- Timeline for the assessment development: 2011-2012 – development; 2012-2013 – development and pilot testing; 2013-2014 – field testing; 2014-2015 – full implementation.
- Rather than just using the existing Kindergarten Readiness Assessment – Literacy, the assessment will be expanded to include more domains of school readiness: social foundations; physical well-being and motor development; language and literacy; mathematics; science; social studies; and the arts. The arts aspect will be voluntary in Ohio; since this area is not covered in Ohio’s newly adopted Early Learning and Development Standards.
- The assessment system will include both preK and kindergarten diagnostic measures that will be administered as the school year begins. Neither will prevent enrollment.
- Scope: For children 36-72 months of age; formative and summative aspects; ONE system using universal design with accommodations as needed for ALL students; strong reliability; will align with state and national content standards. Will be evaluated by a national expert panel and will be compared to other state assessment systems.
- Professional development and technical assistance will be provided. There will be a data capture and reporting system.
- Types of assessment: Multiple measures to be used: guided recorded observation; portfolio (art); performance tasks; developmental checklists; on-demand items. Some aspects of the assessment will be game-based; child will not be able to distinguish assessment from other classroom activities. The assessments will be administered primarily on an individual basis; some will be based on group observations. Technology and paper-pencil methods will be offered. Individualized score reports envisioned for parents and teachers.
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