Planning for Authentic Assessment Using Unstructured and Structured Observation in the Preschool Classroom

143 Vol. 23, No. 3, September 2020 YOUNG EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN https://doi.org/10.1177/1096250619846919 DOI: 10.1177/1096250619846919 journals.sagepub.com/home/yec Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions © 2019 Division for Early Childhood Mr. Jeremy is a new preschool teacher in an inclusive classroom in an urban public school system. The school year has just started, and he is preparing to assess the children in his class to further inform his instruction. In Mr. Jeremy’s teacher preparation program, he learned about the importance of authentic assessment practices, such as using curriculum-based assessment (CBA), for gathering information and documenting children’s skills for the purposes of making decisions. He uses a common early childhood CBA that his district has adopted and is aligned with his state’s regulations and recommendations. He likes it because he can administer it using direct observation, it has a family component where goals and objectives are developed as a team, and it directly links to the curriculum in his classroom. In his experience with using the assessment, he has found it to be time consuming to plan for and to administer. With 12 children, four who are currently on Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), Mr. Jeremy and his classroom assistant, Miss Mary, need a more efficient way to systematically assess the children with the CBA across the school year. Situations like that of Mr. Jeremy are all too common in early 846919 YECXXX10.1177/1096250619846919YOUNG EXCEPTIONAL CHILDRENPlanning for Authentic Assessment / Pool and Hampshire research-article2019