Early childhood teachers generally have not recognized that assessment is a necessary adjunct to effective teaching, but instead have concluded that it is the concern of special educators or program evaluators. In fact, assessment can play a most important role in planning for and instructing all children. Assessment can be defined as a conscious, systematic process that includes (1) setting program goals; (2) setting child goals in relation to program goals; (3) pinpointing the child's status in relation to goal achievement; (4) developing and implementing goal-targeted instruction, including ongoing evaluation and modification when required; and (5) evaluating summatively both child and group attainment of goals, thus evaluating teaching. It is legitimate to expect teachers to use selected assessment procedures when appropriate and to be aware of the benefits of such procedures. Valuable assessment tools for early childhood educators include norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests, casual and sporadic observation, and task analyses that describe children's modes of processing information and identify subtask sequences (the mastery of which leads to mastery of a complex terminal task). The idea of assessing all children involves a mind-set rather than a prescription; in other words, it serves as a reminder that a total group approach is as inappropriate in early education as it is in special education. (RH)