Lawrence J. Schweinhart, Ph.D., President
Andrea DeBruin-Parecki, Ph. D., Director, Early Childhood Reading Institute
Purpose of Paper
This paper addresses the many questions the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation has received about testing four-year-olds. Our reasons for sharing this paper with early childhood practitioners, policymakers, and parents is three-fold: (a) to provide basic information about the terms and issues surrounding assessment; (b) to add an empirical and pragmatic perspective to what can sometimes be an impassioned debate; and (c) to affirm our commitment to doing what is best for young children and supporting those who develop the programs and policies that serve them. High/Scope believes child assessment is a vital and necessary component of all high quality early childhood programs. Assessment is important to understand and support young children’s development. It is also essential to document and evaluate how effectively programs are meeting their educational needs, in the broadest sense of this term. For assessment to occur, it must be feasible. That is, it must meet reasonable criteria regarding its efficiency, cost, and so on. If assessment places an undue burden on programs or evaluators, it will not be undertaken at all and the lack of data will hurt all concerned. In addition to feasibility, however, assessment must also meet the demands of ecological validity. The assessment must addresses the criteria outlined below for informing us about what children in real programs are learning and doing every day.
Efficiency and ecological validity are not mutually exclusive, but must sometimes be balanced against one another. Our challenge is to find the best balance under the conditions given and, when necessary, to work toward altering those conditions. Practically speaking, this means we
must
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