1. Classroom Assessments Checklists, Rating Scales, and Rubrics
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

2. Checklists
Checklist: a list of sequential behaviors arranged in categories used to determine whether the child exhibits the behaviors or skills listed
Example:
(Look about halfway down to the page for the checklist example)
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

3. Developmental Checklists Used With Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers
Establish developmental indicators for children at different stages and ages
Monitor development
Screen to identify children with special needs for additional assessment
Plan experiences to meet the child’s developmental needs
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

4. Using Checklists With School-age Children
Curriculum checklists focus on academic objectives
Assess children’s learning strengths and weaknesses in curriculum objectives and document progress in learning
Checklist items may be representative of achievement test objectives, state-mandated objectives, textbook objectives, and locally selected objectives
Checklist objectives may appear on report cards
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

5. Evaluating and Assessing With Checklists
Curriculum objectives are used to plan
instruction and to evaluate children’s
performance on the same objectives
After the planned activities, children are
assessed to determine how well they learned
Evaluation is achieved through observation
during the activities, and through specific
assessment tasks
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

6. Steps in Checklist Design
To determine the major categories to be included:
1. Identify the skills to be included
2. List target behaviors separately
3. Organize the checklist sequentially
4. Determine how record keeping will be done
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

7. Advantages of Using Checklists
Easy to use and update
Require little training
Available whenever evaluation is needed
Flexible and can be used with a variety of assessment strategies
Behaviors can be recorded frequently
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8. Disadvantages of Using Checklists
Can be time consuming
Teachers find it difficult to adapt teaching and evaluation behaviors to include checklists
If there are too many checklists, the teacher can be overwhelmed with assessment and record keeping
Teachers may not consider assessments with checklists as valid measures
Checklists do not indicate how well a child performs
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

9. Developing Quality Checklists
1. Identify each action desired in the performance.
2. Add actions that are common errors (if they are useful, limited in number, and clearly stated).
3. Arrange the desired actions (and likely errors, if used) in the order they are expected to occur.
4. Provide a simple procedure for checking each action as it occurs.
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

10. Rating Scales
Rating scale: used to determine the degree to which the child exhibits a behavior or the quality of that behavior; each trait is rated on a continuum, the observer decides where the child fits on the scale
Example:
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

11. Rating Scales
Make a qualitative judgment about the extent to which a behavior is present
Consist of a set of characteristics or qualities to be judged by using a systematic procedure
Numerical and graphic rating scales are used most frequently
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

12. Types of Rating Scales Numerical Rating Scales:
a sequence of numbers is assigned to descriptive
Categories; the rater marks a number to indicate the
degree to which a characteristic is present
Graphic Rating Scales:
a set of categories described at certain points along
the line of a continuum; the rater can mark his or her
judgment at any location on the line
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

13. Advantages of Using Rating Scales
Used for behaviors not easily measured by other means
Quick and easy to complete
User can apply knowledge about the child from other times
Minimum of training required
Easy to design using consistent descriptors (e.g., always, sometimes, rarely, or never)
Can describe the child’s steps toward understanding or mastery
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

14. Disadvantages of Using Rating Scales: Reliability
Highly subjective (rater error and bias are a common problem)
Raters may rate a child on the basis of their previous interactions or on an emotional, rather than an objective, basis
Ambiguous terms make them unreliable: raters are likely to mark characteristics by using different interpretations of the ratings (e.g., do they all agree on what “sometimes” means?)
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

15. Developing Quality Rating Scales
1. Identify the learning outcomes that the task is intended to assess.
2. Determine what characteristics of the learning outcomes are most significant that are directly observable; and scale clearly define points on the scale.
3. Select the scale that is most appropriate for the purposes of the assessment.
4. Provide between three and seven ratings to the scale (the number of points will depend on how many levels of accomplishment are needed).
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

16. Rubrics
Qualitative instruments used for assessing student progress in development and learning, or scoring student work
Provide guidelines and descriptors to distinguish performance from one level to another
Criteria for scoring or indicators of performance also describe dimensions of performance
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

17. Holistic Rubrics
Assign a single score to a student’s overall performance
Usually have competency labels that define the level of performance
The quality of work or performance at each level described by a number of indicators
Example:
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

18. Analytic Rubric
Describes and scores each of the task attributes separately
Uses limited descriptors for each attribute
Uses a narrow and broad scale
Allows for specific diagnostic feedback
Example:
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

19. Developmental Rubric
Serves a multiage group of students or to span several grade levels
Assesses student on a continuum that shows developmental progress
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

20. Scoring Criteria in the Design of a Rubric
1. One or more traits or dimensions that serve as the basis for student response
2. Definitions and examples to clarify the meaning of each trait or dimension
3. A scale of values (or a counting system) on which to rate each dimension
4. Standards of excellence for specified performance levels accompanied by examples of each level
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

21. Scoring Criteria in the Design of a Rubric
Levels of performance or dimensions cannot always be predetermined when the rubric is designed
Dimensions of performance must be based on reasonable expectations of the students to be assessed, using existing samples of student work with the criteria revised as necessary
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

22. Advantages of Using Rubrics
Provide guidelines for quality student work or performance
Flexible; can be designed for many uses and ability levels
Easily modified
Can be used by both teacher and student to guide the student’s efforts prior to completion of a task
Can be translated into grades and can be used to discuss with parents and students
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

23. Disadvantages of Using Rubrics
Some difficulty in determining scoring criteria
Teachers may focus on excessively general or inappropriate scoring criteria
Teachers might use predetermined criteria, rather than basing scores on examples of student work
Teachers might inappropriately focus on the quantity of characteristics, rather than the indicators of quality work
Holistic rubrics might lack validity and reliability
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

24. Developing Quality Rubrics
1. Do descriptions focus on important aspects of the performance?
2. Does the rating match the purpose?
3. Are the traits directly observable?
4. Are the criteria understandable?
5. Are the traits clearly defined?
6. Is scoring error minimized?
7. Is the scoring system feasible?
Wortham. Assessment in Early Childhood Education, 5e.
© 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.