Session Six, Section Four

Observation-Based Assessment Tools

Using an Observation-Based Assessment Tool

This next video is called Using an Observation-Based Assessment Tool. This video is 2 minutes, 29 seconds long. You’ll hear from two early learning professionals who use the assessment Teaching Strategies GOLD®, a system widely used in Head Start and other early childhood programs.

As you watch, listen for how these early childhood professionals use a particular observation-based assessment measure.

Consider what educators in the video said about how they use observation-based assessment tools:

Enter observations into the online system.
Cover all the domains.
Rate children’s progress by topic (or objectives within domains).
Keep records of children’s progress organized.
See children’s progress easily.
Combine the tool with portfolios of children’s work.
Potentially give parents access to see their children’s progress.

Example Scoring Sheet

Example scoring sheet — **Click on the image to view a larger version.**

Here is an example Teaching Strategies GOLD® scoring sheet for young children. It has a developmental progression toward the objective—in this case regulates own emotions and behaviors—that is part of the Social-Emotional domain.

Determining a Child’s Level

Three times a year, educators determine “an official solid level we think the children are at within the objectives. There’s numbers for each level. We choose what number the child is at [and] all of those numbers for all the objectives get collected.” This quote from Paul Mezzacapo, an educator at Clayton Early Learning, talks about how his program uses Teaching Strategies GOLD® for child ongoing assessment.

Leading Focused Conversations to Help Complete the DRDP

This video, Leading Focused Conversations to Help Complete the DRDP, is 19 minutes, 56 seconds long. As you watch, notice how the educator, who does home visits, uses an assessment tool in the next video. The educator focuses on using the tool to assess a child who is 2 years old.

The video focuses on the Desired Results Access Project, which promotes positive outcomes for young children with disabilities and their families in California. The educator in the video is working on filling out the Desired Results Developmental Profile© (DRDP) and planning and having conversations with families about ongoing child assessment information.

The DRDP is an assessment instrument designed for educators to observe, document, and reflect on children’s learning and development. It is for use with children from birth to 12 years of age in early learning programs and before- and after-school programs. California is one of a few states that has developed its own system to measure child progress toward desired outcomes.

The intent in viewing this video is to see how an educator uses an assessment tool. Note that this is just an example of an assessment tool. Educators may use others in different ways and in different formats, such as online.

Session 8 talks more about partnering with families in the ongoing assessment process.

As you watch, consider the following question: How does the educator use the assessment tool?

Watch the video: Leading Focused Conversations to Help Complete the DRDP

After, reflect on what you noticed about how the educator uses the assessment tool.

Possible responses are that the educator:

Identified measures (or behaviors or skills in the developmental continuum) where they could rate the child’s ability level confidently.
Noticed areas where they needed more information and planned questions to ask families.
Used the manual, rating record, a worksheet to gather past evidence, and notes from home visits.
Referred to records to rate the child on measures.
Considers the child’s levels in the measures carefully.