earlychildhoodpartnerships

1. Preventing the MisMeasure of Young Children:LINKing Authentic Assessment and Early Childhood Intervention:Best Measures for Best PracticesSTEPHEN J. BAGNATO, Ed.D., NCSPProfessor of Psychology & PediatricsDirector, Early Childhood PartnershipsUniversity of Pittsburgh/Office of Child Development (OCD)bagnatos@pitt.eduwww,earlychildhoodpartnerships.org

2. www.earlychildhoodpartnerships.org

5. Misrepresenting children through mismeasuring them denies children their rights to beneficial expectations and opportunities (Neisworth & Bagnato, 2004, p.198).

6. Workshop Objectives To describe the difference between conventional tests/testing vs. the authentic assessment alternative in early childhood intervention (ECI) To define the 8 developmentally-appropriate standards to analyze the quality of measures to fulfill ECI purposes To identify and describe the highest quality consumer-rated authentic assessments for ECI purposes

7. Workshop Topics Why Are Changes Needed in Early Childhood Measurement? What is Wrong with Conventional Testing of Preschool Children? What Are the Purposes for Assessment of Young Children? What is the Authentic Assessment Alternative to Conventional Testing? Are There Professional Standards for Authentic DAP Assessment What Are Some Exemplary Authentic Assessment Measures What is the Continuum of Measurement Contexts What Are Guidepoints for Authentic Assessment in Action?

8. Why Are Changes Needed in Early Childhood Measurement?

9. Rationale for Changes in Conventional Early Childhood Testing Practices • Lag with philosophy, policies, reforms in early childhood and early intervention:developmentally-appropriate practice (DAP); inclusion; natural environments; equity; response to intervention (RTI); • Emphasize developmentally “inappropriate” practices: decontextualized environments; unnatural child behaviors; no universal design; • Fail to link or align with curricula and standards:No treatment validity; • Fail to collaborate with parents as “core” partners with professionals in appraisal process

10. What is Wrong with Conventional Testing of Preschool Children?

11. Inauthentic Measurement in Early Childhood “Much of developmental psychology [early childhood testing] as it now exists is the science of the strange behavior of children with strange adults in strange settings for the briefest possible periods of time.” (p.19) (Bronfenbrenner, 1979)

14. What is Wrong with Conventional Tests and Testing? • Contrived situations & settings, not real-life activities; • Testing by unfamiliar “experts”; • Expected “test behavior” is unnatural and not play-based; • Insensitive to developmental gains; • Content not worthwhile or functional; • No match with curricular content or standards • “Scripted” materials & procedures; • Norms on only typically developing children; • Inequitable for children with differences and disabilities; • Discourages parent input; • Diagnostic for disabilities not capabilities; • Lacks a research evidence-base in early childhood

15. Conclusion on Conventional Testing of High-Risk Students National Academy of Sciences (2002) “… the committee regards the effort to assess students’ decontextualized potential or ability as inappropriate and scientifically invalid(pp. 8-23)”

16. Why Do We Assess Young Children?The Justifiable Purposes for Assessment in Early Childhood/Early Intervention

17. ASSESSMENT “Assidere” – to sit beside and get to know; derives from associate and assembly

18. Early Intervention Assessment Purposes • Finding and screening • Determining service eligibility • Assessing functional developmental and behavioral competencies • Facilitating parent-professional teamwork and collaborative decision-making • Determining program goals and services via IEP/IFSP development • Monitoring child and family progress • Evaluating program impact and outcomes • Diagnosing by response to intervention (RTI)

19. Justifiable Measurement Purposes for Early Childhood Intervention • Screening and early detection for instructional needs, not exclusion • Individual curriculum goal-planning • Monitoring curricular progress toward standards • Tracking individual and group progress • Documenting response to instruction, tutoring, therapy, intervention • Evaluating program impact and outcomes

20. Primary Measurement Purpose in Early Childhood Intervention • “The overarching purpose of assessment in early childhood intervention is the design of individual plans for care, instruction and therapy”(Bricker etal., 2000; Sandall etal., 2000; Bagnato & Neisworth, 1997).

21. What is the Authentic Assessment Alternative to Conventional Testing?

22. Definition “Authentic assessment refers to the systematic recording of developmental observations overtime about the naturally occurring behaviors of young children in daily routines by familiar and knowledgeable caregivers in the child’s life.”(Bagnato & Yeh Ho, 2006)

23. Authentic Assessment in Early Childhood Intervention • Natural observations of ongoing child behavior in everyday settings and routines vs. contrived arrangements; • Reliance on informed caregivers (teachers, parents, team) to collect convergent, multi-source data across settings; • Ongoing monitoring of skill acquisition in natural activities (i.e., preschool, home, community) over sufficient time periods and occasions • Curriculum-based measures linked to program goals, content, standards, & expected outcomes; • Universal design; equitable assessment content and methods; • Intra-individual child progress supplemented by inter-individual normative comparisons; • NAEYC/DEC/HS DAP Assessment Standards & Practices

24. Our Mantra:No Tabletop Testing !

31. LeVan, R (2007). Testing Without Tests--Shopping for Skillsin Bagnato (2007). Authentic Assessment for Early Childhood Intervention: Best Practices. New York: Guilford Press. Adventures in Assessment with Clarence

32. What is the Continuum of Measurement Contexts to Guide DAP Assessment for Early Childhood Intervention?

33. Authentic Assessment: Continuum of Measurement Contexts Natural Clinical Analog Simulated

34. Continuum of Measurement ContextsContextualized>>>>>Decontextualized NATURAL WHERE Everyday routines WHAT Spontaneous behaviors HOW Direct observation; report; interview FBA; DOCS;ABAS ANALOG • Everyday routines • Prompted natural behaviors • Direct observation; report; interview • CSBS;DOCS; AEPS; CCCSN

38. Continuum of Measurement Contexts:Contextualized>>>>>Decontextualized SIMULATED • Replica or setup situations • On-demand behaviors • Structured tests; observation schedules • TPBA;BDI; Arena CLINICAL • Laboratory situations • Standard responses to standard stimuli • Psychometric test instruments • SBIS;BSID;WPPSI

39. Authentic Assessment Activity • View video segment(s) of assessment situations--Jordan • Identify the context type from the continuum • Identify the likely team model • Describe the impact of the context/model on the child and parent in the segment(s)

40. Are There Professional Standards for Choosing and Using Authentic Assessment Measures in Early Childhood/Early Intervention?

43. Selected Professional Standards for Early Childhood Assessment(DEC, 2004; NAEYC, 1997, HS, 2000) • Reliance on developmental observations-ongoing observational assessments overtime • Performance on “authentic, not contrived, activities” • Integration of assessment and curriculum • Child progress on past performances as the reference, not group norms • Choose materials that accommodate the child’s special functional needs • Use only measures that have high treatment validity • Rely on curriculum-based measures as the foundation or “mutual language” for team assessments • Defer a diagnosis until evaluation of a child’s response to a tailored set of interventions • Use scales with sufficient item density to detect even small increments of progress

44. AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD & EARLY INTERVENTION 8 Developmentally-Appropriate Standards for Professional Practices

45. ACCEPTABILITY Social validity; perceived worth or appropriateness of the scale’s item content as perceived by parents & caregivers • Social competencies: Contains socially valued & relevant content? • Social detection:Yields socially noticeable functional changes in real-life? • Social appropriateness: Uses methods acceptable to parents and caregivers?

47. AUTHENTICITY Extent to which assessment content & methods sample naturally occurring behaviors in everyday settings • Functional content:Necessary competencies for real-life participation? • Observational methods: In-vivo observations & reports of familiar people? • Natural situations:Captures data in familiar classroom, home, play, & community settings

50. Nonauthentic Content in Commonly Used Early Childhood Tests: • Removes/replaces pegs from pegboard • Sorts dry macaroni shapes into sorting tray • Stacks blocks horizontally/vertically • Strings 3-4 beads • Colors within lines of a circle