The main purpose of assessment involves progress monitoring and program evaluation. Program monitoring includes procedures for collecting data used to monitor the effectiveness of the strategies used by programs.

Here is a list of some common procedures used by early childhood special education programs to gather evidence and asses children’s progress. Whenever you see a link, there should be a web page you may read or video you may watch to support your learning.

• Observations: I have included here a web page on anecdotal records. It includes written information as past events, and if you look carefully, as you read towards the bottom of the page you will find a couple of anecdotal records with links to videos “Anecdotal Record – see clip.” Then you will be able to watch the videos for these anecdotal records. Running Records are another way to document observations. Taking running records implies that the observer documents information as events happen.  It involves writing down everything that is happening, in the order that it happens. There is little time for editing. The link provided for running records provides you with additional information that you will use to complete a short essay in this module.
• Checklists: Checklists are quick and easy ways to document children’s information. They include a list of behaviors that the teacher want to observe from the child, and the teacher basically will check off as the behavior occurs. They can be used to record observations in virtually any situation, and do not require the educator to spend much time recording data.
• Portfolios: The teacher collects samples of actual work completed by a child that it’s organized in chronological order and by domain areas. Although an aim of this approach is to identify areas for improvement, the focus is on the child’s capabilities or strengths.
• Time Sampling: it’s a quantitative method that allows teachers to document how often a targeted behavior or list of behaviors occurs. Observers often use a specific grid format to record their observations.