Assessment Tools For Preschool Teachers + Examples [Daycare To Early Years]

An assessment is a way to measure and gather information relative to something. In education, it means testing and analyzing. It uses empirical data to measure the skills, knowledge, and attitude of students.

Preschool is the beginning of child education, and it is the first place that kids stay for a long time after home. Therefore, providing proper education is necessary for preschool, and assessment is essential for the development of preschool education. Then the concern on assessment tools for preschool teachers comes to discussion. 

Assessment tools are the methods used to measure the skills, abilities, knowledge, and fluency in a field or a specific subject, and they estimate the progress of education. When it comes to assessment in preschools, there are several techniques that preschool teachers can use.

Observation, parent collaboration, portfolios, checklists, rubrics, and tests are some of those assessment tools for preschool teachers. In addition, within the current context, teachers can use online assessment tools like Kahoot, Mentimeter, and Poll Everywhere to assess preschool kids. 

By reading this article, you may be able to understand what an assessment for preschool kids means and the best assessment tools for preschool teachers. Then let’s identify some online assessment tools that preschool teachers can use to assess kids.

Finally, I’ll let you know the benefits that preschool teachers can achieve by using assessment tools. If you are a preschool teacher, then this article may be beneficial for you. So keep reading!

What is an assessment for preschool kids?

Simply, an assessment is a way of testing, analyzing, and providing judgments for improvement. It gathered data relative to something and measured the skills, knowledge, and abilities.

Preschool is fundamental to a child’s life since it is the beginning of their education and exposure to society. Therefore, preschool education is extremely important for the future of a kid.

Even though it seems easy for outsiders, preschool teaching is more difficult and needs much concentration than other teachings since it deals with early childhood.

If you are a preschool teacher, you may know how much you have to think about every detail of your teaching and how hard it should be planned. Assessments are an essential way of preschool education since it provides a good overview of the child. 

Assessment for preschoolers includes:

• Gathering details of the kid.
• Reviewing them.
• Planning teaching techniques through it.

An assessment provides details about the child’s progress and development together with his capacity and level of learning. The preschool teacher has to assess the kids since it is necessary to identify their capacity to formulate the teaching strategies and techniques.

By assessments, the teacher can understand how the kids grab lessons, their speed, and the easiest ways to identify the lessons. In this concern, assessment tools for preschool teachers take a major place.

Preschool teachers must have a better knowledge about the assessment tools that can be used to assess kids in their early childhood. It will make the education more effective and fruitful with the active engagement of kids and may provide better identification of every student’s capacity.

Best Assessment tools for preschool teachers

When it comes to preschool education, teachers need to pay more attention to child assessment and should find better assessment tools to assess kids and formulate the way of teaching.

Here are some assessment tools for preschool teachers that can be used in teaching and measuring children’s abilities. If you are a preschool teacher, try these tools with kids, and you may be able to get a better idea about their learning strengths.

1. Observation

Observation is one of the initial tools of assessment that can use regularly. It is an informal way that watches the activities, responses, interactions, and performances of kids.

Observation happens automatically by the teacher’s side. To make it more advanced, you can ask kids to do several tasks and observe their way of fulfilling them.

2. Parent collaboration

As preschool teachers, you can invite parents to actively engage in the child assessment process. Most of the time, parents of preschoolers are active and have a greater willingness to support kids’ education.

You can make it a benefit and discuss with parents about the abilities and weaknesses of kids. Then take their opinion of the child and find out the children’s performance at home.

You can use written surveys or some tasks to allow the parents to measure and assess their kids.

3. Portfolios

A portfolio is a good way to assess the progress of children throughout the school year and measure their changes and pitfalls.

You can collect examples of their performance throughout the year at several instances and find out whether they have developed their skills or not and how they were improved.

Through that, you may be able to understand the success of your teaching and the changes and replacements you should make.

4. Checklists

The checklist is a good and well-planned way of assessment, and it is better to improve the skills of kids.

You can list the skills and tasks that the kid needs to achieve in a checklist and then check whether the kid can achieve them or not and to what extent they fulfill the task.

You won’t miss the tasks from checklists, and they are good for you to plan everything properly.

4. Rubrics

Rubrics are another best way to assess kids by indicating scales. You can include levels of mastery to measure the performance of kids, and it is better to include three levels.

When kids fulfill the tasks well, you can give them a higher level, and when they are weak at some tasks, rank them as a lower level.

These rubrics will give you a better overview of how the kids performed, at what rate, and what tasks are difficult for them. 

5. Tests

Tests can be used to assess kids in a standard way. Since preschool kids are too small and in their early ages, it is better to provide simple monthly tests such as identifying letters and words, dictation, drawing shapes, memorizing poems, etc., to assess them.

Do not provide stressful structured tests and sort out the test results to the assessment procedure. 

Tools to assess kids online

Within the current context, online education has taken a major place in the education system. Especially with the global pandemic, there is no option other than adapting to a virtual platform, and teachers and students have to adapt.

Since the teacher and the kid are not closer to this virtual platform, it is difficult to assess kids, especially preschoolers.

Therefore, you need to concern more on the online assessment tools that can be used with preschool kids. Here are some online assessment tools for preschool teachers.

1. Kahoot

Kahoot is an online assessment tool in the form of a game. It is an easy platform that teachers can create simple questions with multiple answer choices for kids, and they can be easily engaged.

Since it has a game structure and interesting outlook, kids may love it and prefer Kahoot. You can assess them live as well as do homework. 

2. Poll Everywhere

Poll Everywhere is another easy online assessment tool that can be used to assess kids. Teachers can create questions, and with structured poll answers, proper assessment regarding students’ knowledge can be taken.

Teachers can get live feedback for their assessments, and it is an interesting way to assess kids and take the active engagement of kids.

4. Mentimeter

Mentimeter is a free platform to assess kids, and it has several options such as icebreakers, polls, listening assessments, quizzes, and tests.

It is a very interesting assessment tool for kids since it has several features and is easy to engage. It allows engaging kids, managing teaching expectations, and improving their skills. 

Benefits of assessment tools for preschool teachers

If you are a preschool teacher, then you know how much assessment is important for preschool kids and how much it affects the formulation of your teaching.

Therefore, using assessment tools for preschool teachers takes a prominent place in the early childhood education process, and identifying the benefits of using assessment tools for preschoolers will be more encouraging for you to use them effectively.

1. Record the progress 

Assessment tools are important for preschool teachers and parents to have records on children’s information, development, and progress. They provide evidence for the learning abilities of kids and how much they developed.

2. Help to formulate the teaching techniques

Assessment tools are beneficial for preschool teachers to plan their teaching strategies and techniques. It will be good feedback for them to re-organize their way of teaching and identify their strengths and weaknesses.

Teachers can measure their success in teaching by observing the progress of kids. So, it will improve the teaching strategies further.

3. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of kids

By using assessment tools, preschool teachers may be able to understand the individual performance of kids in each subject together with their strengths and weaknesses.

Then teachers can pay more attention to weak students while encouraging good performances. It will be so important for the education of kids.

4. Define targets clearly

Assessment tools are important for teachers since they clearly define the targets that they need to achieve from teaching.

It takes teachers away from missing their objectives and makes it easier to achieve expected outcomes from kids since there are defined targets properly and indications of whether they are achieved or not. 

5. Improve the quality of education

Assessment improves the quality of education while providing feedback and grading for the performance of kids.

It makes the teaching and learning more organized with the indication of fulfilling tasks properly.

Conclusion

Now, I guess you have got a clear understanding of what the assessment for preschool kids means and the assessment tools for preschool teachers that you can use to assess your kids.

Since the online assessment tools mentioned here apply to preschoolers and will be more beneficial in the current context due to online learning platforms, I think now it is clear that assessment tools play a prominent role in early childhood education, and therefore, as preschool teachers, you can use them for more effective education.

Thank you for reading this post. Stay tuned with Edu Nursery for more valuable content.