Authentic assessment is a growing alternative to conventional testing. This research-to-practice article describes a framework for implementing authentic assessment. The R-E-A-L framework shows how roles, equipment, assessment tools, and location can be incorporated into early childhood practices.

Among findings of a study involving 48 teachers of early childhood programs for handicappped children were that diagnostic reports should be organized by developmental or functional domains and should include suggestions for behavioral and instructional strategies. (CL)

The inclusion of young children with disabilities has remained a function of the Head Start program since its inception in the 1960s when the United States Congress mandated that children with disabilities comprise 10% of the Head Start enrollment (Zigler & Styfco, 2000). Standardized, norm-referenced tests used to identify children with…

Inservice workshops and simulated exercises were used with groups of early childhood teachers (N=48) to evaluate the effective features of diagnostic reports that make them useful to teachers for individualized curriculum planning for handicapped students. Results supported the advantages of using developmentally based reports to facilitate…

Conducted national consumer survey of preschool psychologists (n=185) regarding treatment and social validity of early intelligence tests for preschoolers with developmental deficits (n=7,223). Results demonstrated that early intelligence tests failed to be acceptable tools 43% of time and failed to document eligibility of over 3,000 young…