Communicating Psychometric Information to Diverse Audiences: From Early Childhood Teachers to Policy Makers

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium focuses on strategies for communicating psychometric information, gathered through an early childhood formative assessment, to various stakeholders. The Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP [2015]) was developed for teachers to observe, document, and reflect on young children’s learning and developmental progress. It provides teachers with valid and reliable measurement of individual children’s development in key domains, guides professional development for teachers and ongoing quality improvement, and provides agency administrators with results to inform the development of programs and policies at the state and local levels. The presentations discuss how the assessment was constructed to support curriculum planning, how it can be used to assess progress toward school readiness, and how results can be used to close early learning gaps.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Early Education and Child Development

Chair

• Cecelia Fisher-Dahms, California Department of Education

Papers

• Communicating Psychometrically Derived Domain-Specific Developmental Information to Early Educators - Peter L. Mangione, WestEd

• Engaging Early Childhood Educators in the Process of Setting Standards - Karen L. Draney, University of California - Berkeley

• Designing Software to Support a Psychometrically Grounded Standard-Setting Process - Rebecca Freund, Pearson Education, Inc.

• Using Interactive Online Data Visualization to Communicate Progress Toward School Readiness - Kerry Kriener-Althen, WestEd

• Examining the Early Language and Literacy Trajectories of Dual Language Learners - Joshua Sussman, University of California - Berkeley

Discussant

• Mark R. Wilson, University of California - Berkeley