Policies and National Regulations and Standards for Early Childhood Education

The state of Georgia assesses students in various ways, aiming to measure student achievement of the standards utilized to improve education. For the pre-kindergarten program in Georgia, which is lottery funded, the Georgia Early Learning and Development Standards (GELDS) are used. Also implemented in Georgia are the Georgia performance standards, Georgia standards of excellence, as well as the adopted Common Core State Standards (CCSS) (Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes, 2016). These performance standards aim to insulate and identify the necessary skills to communicate, reason, form connections, and solve problems (Georgia Performance Standards, 2020). These standards also provide vital information to educators concerning the extent of assessment in reference to each individual student. According to the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE)(2020), the state of Georgia adopted the CCSS in an effort to improve the learning and teaching, which takes place in the educational system.

More information on Georgia performance standards can be found at the following link: https://www.georgiastandards.org/Pages/default.aspx.

To measure student achievement, Georgia utilizes a variety of formative and summative assessments. Examples of formative assessment used in kindergarten in the state of Georgia referred to as GKIDS (Georgia Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills) Readiness Check and GKIDS 2.0 measure student abilities across multiple developmental domains (GaDOE, 2020). One summative assessment utilized in Georgia is the Georgia Milestone Assessment System (GMAS). This comprehensive program includes assessments that measure criterion-referenced material at all three school levels, starting in third-grade. The GMAS consists of a variety of question formats, including technology-enhanced, multiple-choice, and writing components consisting of constructive and extended constructive responses (GaDOE, 2020). This assessment measures how well students have learned the skills located within the adopted CCSS. Results of the GMAS are used to help identify students who are in danger of failing to meet or master grade-level content, to provide educators crucial data regarding instructional practices, and to provide districts with areas of weaknesses and strengths regarding the implementation of future educational plans (GaDOE, 2020). Aside from the GMAS, Georgia also has assessments aligned directly to tailor the needs of English Language Learners (ELL). More information regarding the assessments used by the state of Georgia can be found at the following link:

https://www.gadoe.org/Curriculum-Instruction-and-Assessment/Assessment/Pages/default.aspx

Similar to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)(2012) Standard V, Georgia also encourages educators to use a variety of assessment types in the classroom, to utilize assessment results to drive instruction, and to collaborate with other educators to discuss assessment results to plan future instruction. The results of the assessments used in Georgia are also similar to Standard V of the NBPTS in that assessment data is used to encourage educators to evaluate and self-assess their own educational practices. The CCSS standards adopted by Georgia closely align with the principles of child development and learning set by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)(2003). Like the NAEYC principles, individualized educational plans are created based on data derived from both summative and formative assessments of students. The standards utilized by the state of Georgia compare closely with the principles set by the NAEYC (2003) in that all curriculum and assessments are supportive of all children, regardless of learning styles, ages, race, culture, language, or other temperaments. One way to possibly improve the standards used by the state of Georgia would be to incorporate more standards surrounding the importance of play in the lower elementary grades. Another suggestion for improvement in regards to the alignment of the Georgia standards in contrast to the NAEYC principles is to incorporate more standards in the primary grades which integrate multiple cultures, allowing the exploration of diversity for young children.  

Questions for Quest

1. Do you feel the GMAS is appropriate for children starting in third-grade, or should it only be utilized in the middle and high school grades? Why?
2. Should all states require some type of performance assessment to measure student performance?
3. Do formative, summative, authentic, and other forms of assessment given by educators sufficiently and effectively measure student growth and performance?

References

Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes. (2016). State-by-state. http://ceelo.org/state-information/state-map/

Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE). (2020). Assessment research, development and administration. https://www.gadoe.org/Curriculum-Instruction-and-Assessment/Assessment/Pages/default.aspx

Georgia Performance Standards (GPS). (2020). Georgia standards of excellence. https://www.georgiastandards.org/Standards/Pages/BrowseStandards/BrowseGPS.aspx

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). (2003). Early childhood curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation. https://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/CAPEexpand.pdf

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). (2012). Early childhood generalist standards (3rd ed.). http://boardcertifiedteachers.org/sites/default/files/EC-GEN.pdf