Explain the purpose of assessment. Refer back to your first Week One discussion to assist with this.

Assessment Plan

As early childhood educators, it is our job to ensure that students are learning and developing at an appropriate rate. As we have learned throughout this course, using developmentally appropriate assessment is one of the most efficient ways to be able to ensure that this happens. While it is our responsibility to understand the assessment process and the various strategies, tools, and procedures that are used with young children, the families of the children we work with may not always understand why we are doing what we are doing when it comes to assessment. As the director of an NAEYC-accredited preschool, you have decided to develop a comprehensive strengths-based and family-centered assessment plan where families are included each and every step of the way.

For this assignment you can choose to create your assessment plan in many formats. You could develop a handbook using Word, create a PowerPoint Presentation, or even create an assessment website using a tool such as Weebly. Regardless of which format you choose, your strengths-based and family-centered assessment plan must include the following sections:

Introduction:

• Describe your center or school’s philosophy of assessment. Your philosophy must be supported by scholarly or credible sources.

Goals, Benefits, and Uses of Assessment:

• Explain the purpose of assessment. Refer back to your first Week One discussion to assist with this.
• Discuss the assessment cycle. Refer back to your second Week One discussion to assist with this.
• Describe the principles of assessment that will guide the use of assessment in your center. Refer back to your second Week One discussion to assist with this.

Types of Assessments: For each of the types of assessment listed below, you will need to define the assessment, provide a rationale for using this type of assessment, share an example, and explain at least one way you use the information from this assessment to inform your instruction.

• Observations. (Refer back to your work from Week Three to assist with this.)
• Checklists, rating scales, rubrics. (Refer back to your Week Four discussion to assist with this.)
• Teacher-designed assessments. (Refer back to your Week Four assignment to assist with this.)
• Performance-based assessments. (Refer back to your Week Five discussion to assist with this.)
• Standardized assessments. (Refer back to your work in Week Two to assist with this.)
• Portfolios. (Refer back to your Week Five assignment to assist with this.)

Using Assessments to Inform Instruction:

• Analyze how the assessments you are using meet ethical standards
• Examine how you use these assessments to make decisions; include specific examples
• Discuss how you will use assessments to help ensure students are meeting their goals on their IEPs and/or IFSPs.

Assessment Partnerships with Families:

• Explain how your school will develop an assessment partnership with families. Include specific strategies for involving families and communities in their children’s learning and development. (Refer back to your Week Six discussion to assist with this.)
• Discuss, using specific examples, how you will use parent conferences to communicate about assessments. (Refer back to your Week Three assignment to assist with this.)
• Explain how diverse families and community characteristics will be taken into consideration when communicating about assessments.
• Share at least two professional organizations or assessment based resources you can provide families with to help them better understand the use of assessments.

Research and Resource Expectations:

• Source Requirement:
  • At least two scholarly peer-reviewed or credible sources

Writing and Formatting Expectations:

• Title Page: Must include the following:
  • Title
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
• Academic Voice: Academic voice is used (avoids casual language, limited use of “I”, it is declarative).
• Purpose and Organization: Demonstrates logical progression of ideas.
• APA Formatting: Papers are formatted properly and all sources are cited and referenced in APA style as outlined
• Assignment Length: Your Assessment Plan Assignment should be eight pages in length (not including title and reference pages).Running Head: Teacher Designed Assessment 2

   

  Teacher Designed Assessment 2

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  Teacher-Designed Assessment

  ECE657: Assessment to Support Young Children and Families

  Annette Williams

  Instructor Strout

  December 9, 2019

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  The teacher-designed assessment chosen was Teacher-Designed Assessment 1 on odd and even numbers. The test is related to the course objectives and learning outcomes because it tests the cognitive skills of the students. The students are tested on their ability to problem solve and think logically. The sections in the tests were also taught in the class and students should be able to answer them. There are also clear directions in each section of the test. Students were given clear directions to count stars and determine whether the resulting number was an odd or an even number.

  The questions were not arranged from simple to complex. The initial question asked students to count stars and indicate that the resulting number is odd or even. The first two questions were about counting starts while the other two questions were about indicating the shapes that were even and odd in combination. All the four questions, however, seemed to be the same because they asked about counting and determining odd and even numbers.

  The point values were clearly stated and the test included various types of questions. This is because some questions required the students to count the rectangular objects while others required them to count circular objects. This is even though the same concept was tested for all the questions, the difference being the color of the shapes used. Question types were also grouped because the first two questions asked students to count and indicate whether the final number was odd or even while the last two questions required students to indicate whether the shapes were odd or even and this could be determined without counting.

   

   

  There was ample room for answers since students had to tick the correct answer. The appropriate reading level was used for those in 6th grade. The test would determine their knowledge of odd and even numbers and their ability to count numbers properly. Students in the 6th grade should have known how to count numbers.

  The purpose of the assessment is to guide teacher planning since it identifies the competencies and skills that the students have already acquired. The instructor may notice that some students are not able to differentiate between odd and even numbers. This will help him/her enhance the teaching of odd and even numbers. The assessment also determines whether the students have adequate problem-solving skills, and whether or not they can add numbers correctly. The teacher will, therefore, determine whether he/she should give the students more tasks on problem-solving.

  The teacher-designed assessment meets the characteristics of a quality teacher-designed assessment. This is due to various reasons. First of all, it is valid. The teacher-designed assessment has achieved content validity because it efficiently measures the cognitive skills of students such as the ability to problem-solve. The assessment tests the level of knowledge of students in counting numbers and differentiating between odd and even numbers (Bruno, 2013). By presenting questions and giving the students some choices to choose their answers from, the test allows them to acquire problem-solving skills. Students are also asked to choose the choice that has an even number of circles.

  The test is also reliable because it can measure the performance of students consistently. It ensures that all students give answers in a standard format. The students are required to tick the correct answer from the choices given, therefore, the answers of a specific group of students can be compared with the answers given by other groups. Since the students are to choose the correct answer, it does not matter who marks the scripts. The answers may not change since the test contains definite questions with specific questions. “Assessments are usually expected to produce comparable outcomes, with consistent standards over time and between different learners and examiners” (Bruno, 2013). It is, therefore, consistent and meets the features of quality tests.

  The assessment is fair to all students since it requires all students to choose answers from the given options. The questions are closed-ended to ensure that all students give standard answers. They also engage and motivate the students to learn more about counting and identification of odd and even numbers. The assessment is appropriate for those in the 6th grade because it tests them with the addition of numbers. Students in the 6 grade should acquire problem-solving skills. By sitting on the test and answering the questions, their problem-solving skills are enhanced. The test also enhances their memory because it teaches how to store information for long periods. For example, some questions ask the students to determine the odd numbers and the ones that are even. It is up to the students to remember that odd numbers always end with 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9 while even numbers always end with 0, 2, 4, 6 or 8. Their long term memory is tested because they have to remember information that was acquired a long time ago.

  Students in 6th grade should have acquired math skills such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. They should also be able to perform the operations with decimals and fractions. The assessment is, therefore, a perfect opportunity for them to remind themselves of performing the operations correctly (Linan-Thompson, 2017). The shapes given in the assessment enhanced the visual processing of the students. They were able to identify various shapes such as circles, stars, and rectangles.

  The assessment aligns with the purposes of teacher-designed assessments because it can guide the instruction by teachers and the topics that they should focus on. By determining whether or not students understand odd or even numbers, teachers can know whether or not they should continue teaching their students on the topic. The assessment can be used to inform instruction by determining the topics that students should be taught. If students report the wrong numbers in the addition section, they should be taught more also. In some cases, the assessment results may be such that a large percentage of the students performed well in addition to numbers (Shepard, 2014). This would mean that there is no need for teaching the students also. However, if a large percentage of them fail, they should be taught also, therefore, this should be included in the curriculum.

  The assessment would reveal the level of knowledge, reasoning and thinking among the students. The assessment results may be used to determine the instruction strategy to be used. They will inform instruction in that they will determine to identify the problems that students face and the number of students who are faced with the problems. If a high number of students have failed, instructors have to think of alternative ways of instruction. The teachers may realize that the level of intelligence is the difference amongst their students when they see the assessment results, therefore, they may be forced to use an assessment that accommodates the differences in intelligence among students.

   

   

   

   

   

  REFERENCES

  Bruno, J. E. (2013). Using testing to provide feedback to support instruction: A reexamination of the role of assessment in educational organizations. In Item banking: Interactive testing and self-assessment (pp. 190-209). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

  Linan-Thompson, S. (2017). Response to instruction, English language learners and disproportionate representation: The role of assessment. Psicothema, 22(4), 970-974.

  Shepard, L. A. (2014). The role of assessment in a learning culture. Educational researcher, 29(7), 4-14.