ERIC Number: EJ1195236
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Nov
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0033-3085
EISSN: N/A
The Accuracy of Teachers' Judgments for Assessing Young Children's Emerging Literacy and Math Skills
Kowalski, Kurt; Brown, Rhonda Douglas; Pretti-Frontczak, Kristie; Uchida, Chiharu; Sacks, David F.
Psychology in the Schools, v55 n9 p997-1012 Nov 2018
Because of developmental constraints on the types of assessment that can be used with young children, teachers' judgments of students' skills and abilities are a particularly important source of information in early education. The present study investigates the accuracy of these judgments by examining agreement between Prekindergarten teachers' (n = 66) judgments of children's (n = 122) emerging math and literacy skills made with teacher rating scales and children's performance on a researcher-administered demand performance assessment. Average agreement between measures was 71% for language and literacy items and 66% for math items. When disagreements occurred for language and literacy skills, they were more likely a result of teachers reporting that children had fewer skills than indicated by the demand performance assessment, rather than more. For math, teachers were equally likely to report either fewer or more math skills than indicated by the performance measure. Teachers' over- and underestimations of children's skills were related to their ratings of the children's social-emotional functioning and the type of skills being assessed. Children's gender and race were not related to teacher accuracy; neither were teacher education or years of experience.
Descriptors: Emergent Literacy, Preschool Teachers, Preschool Children, Mathematics Skills, Gender Differences, Racial Differences, Ethnicity, Teaching Experience, Teacher Characteristics, Teacher Education, Academic Ability
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Preschool Education; Early Childhood Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A