Assessing Kindergarten Children: What School Systems Need To Know. Research & Development.

This resource book is designed to guide school systems through a decision-making process to design an assessment system that is best suited to their particular needs. The assessment system will collect information from children through assessment measures and perhaps other sources of data, such as health records and demographic data. The principles outlined in the guide are based on recommendations from the National Education Goals Panel, other position statements, research, and experiences with assessment systems. The guide discusses wide-scale assessment systems; it does not address evaluations of individual children when screening tests indicate a need for further evaluation. The book focuses on balancing the need for information with concern for children and discusses assessment "shoulds" and "should nots," as well as data collection and assessment safeguards. A separate section considers assessments for kindergarten students. Appendixes include a planning guide for developing an assessment system and references for position statement Web sites and additional information. (SLD)