The first of the National Education Goals states that by the year 2000 all children in America will start school ready to learn. Pressed by demands for greater accountability and enhanced educational performance, states are developing standards and creating new criteria and approaches for assessing achievement. Calls to assess young children are…

This technical assistance paper presents information designed to assist school personnel in assessing the strengths and needs of children and planning developmentally appropriate curriculum strategies. The first topic addressed is assessment strategies, which include developmental screening, diagnostic instruments, teacher observation, parent…

A workshop designed to present teachers and administrators with information on assessment issues and instruments related to developmentally appropriate practices in early childhood classrooms is presented in this guide for trainers. The workshop is process-oriented, meaning that participants will be engaged in activities that require them to…

Providing a comprehensive overview, this guide to kindergarten screening was produced to aid Maine's school districts as they work to increase the effectiveness of their screening programs. Part 1, providing materials related to meeting the requirements of Maine's Education Reform Act of 1984, includes regulations pertaining to screening, a…

Describes ways in which well-intentioned efforts to protect young children from inappropriate school practices have had the opposite effect. Readiness testing, retention, transition classes, tracking, and increased entrance age are discussed. Alternative strategies are proposed. (BB)

This handbook is intended to help Chapter 1 project staff create a developmentally appropriate early childhood program for preschool and kindergarten through second grade. It is a companion piece to two workshops developed to acquaint early childhood staff with developmentally appropriate practices. An introduction describes the philosophy and…

The purpose of this publication, which is addressed to a variety of audiences including educators, parents, legislators, school board members, members of the press, and voters in general, is to persuade the reader to help stop achievement and readiness testing in kindergarten and first and second grades and to rethink current educational goals and…

This book is intended to help early childhood practitioners develop the essential understanding they require for appropriate use of assessment and evaluation information and to illuminate many of the issues involved in formal and informal assessment and evaluation. The chapters are: (1) "Assessment and Evaluation in the Early Childhood…

With the message that parents need to become informed about the educational practices that affect their children, this book offers a guide to different approaches to kindergarten, expectations for incoming students, and ways to obtain needed information for parents new to the process of schooling. Following an introduction that calls for increased…