What Is Assessment?

“Teaching without assessment is like driving a car without headlights.”Teaching in the dark does not benefit you or your children. Assessments   spreads  light on what children know and can do. It is an invaluable tool to guide your teaching and your students’   learning.

Assessing  the Head & the Hands 

          Your children’s lives, both in and out of school are influenced by your assessment and the assessment of others. As an early childhood professional, assessment influences your professional life and is a vital part of your professional practice. Effective assessment is one of your most important responsibilities.

       Assessment is the ongoing, continuous process of collecting, gathering, and documenting information about children’s development. Learning, health, behavior, academic progress, need for special services and achievement in order to make decisions about how to best educate them. Teachers and early childhood programs are informed by ongoing systematic, formal, and informal assessment approaches to provide information on children’s learning and development. These assessments occur within the context of reciprocal communication with families and sensitivity with cultural contexts in which children develop. Assessment results are used to benefit children by informing sound decisions about children, teaching, and program improvement.

http://www.getreadytoread.org/screening-tools/supportive-materials-for-elors/assessment-in-early-childhood