The Assessment of Young Children

In my classroom, we use the assessment tool DIAL-3 on our children.  The DIAL 3 assesses the four early childhood educational domains cognitive, physical, social/emotional, and language skills  it also includes self-help skills.  I like this assessment because it gives me an insight as  to what the child needs to be worked on.  I do the test at the beginning of the school year and that is what I  use to develop my IEP's in the beginning as well as observations. The DIAL-3 can be done in a day whereas other assessments take awhile.  I have used the Lap-D, but I feel as though it takes to long for testing and the children can lose interest in it.  I believe that we should test children, that is how we learn from them.  This is a way we can help them progress in school.  The whole idea for early childhood education is teach the child at an early age and that is what the assessment are there for.

http://psychcorp.pearsonassessments.com/HAIWEB/Cultures/en-us/Productdetail.htm?Pid=PAa13700


I know in the public school system they use the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System or CATS because it is mandated by the state. CATS provided statewide test results as percentages of students scoring at any of four performance levels: novice, apprentice, proficient and distinguished. Kentucky's goal under CATS was to reduce the number of students performing at the lowest of these levels (novice and apprentice), while increasing the number performing at the higher levels (proficient and distinguished).  I do not know much  about CATS testing because my daughter just started in the public school system.   I can not pass judgement on this testing system yet but I will as soon as I learn more about it.

http://www.education.ky.gov/KDE/HomePageRepository/Proof+of+Progress/Commonwealth+Accountability+Testing+System+(CATS)+Results.htm