Assessment in Early Childhood

Abstract

The current emphasis on alignment of early learning guidelines, assessment, curricular practices, and accountability in early education and care systems has provided an opportunity to revisit and refine early childhood assessment practices. Practitioners, researchers, and policy makers are increasingly interested in developing instruction-focused assessment strategies that have instructional and intervention validity. In particular, progress is being made in the development and validation of universal screening assessments and progress-monitoring methods that can support the application of response-to-intervention models in early childhood settings. This article provides a brief review of select assessment tools in early childhood that demonstrate instructional validity. The authors suggest future directions for strengthening the instructional and intervention validity of early childhood assessments in the context of response-to-intervention frameworks.