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Assessing Young Children’s Development and Learning
Birth to Age Eight
- Julie A. Ray - Southeast Missouri State University, USA
Other Titles in:
Early Childhood Assessment
Early Childhood Assessment
January 2026 | 400 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
Assessing Young Children's Development and Learning: Birth to Age Eight helps early childhood educators understand both the need for assessment as well as the process of assessment for infants, toddlers, and children up to age eight. This comprehensive text covers a broad range of assessment strategies, from observation to formalized assessments and demonstrates how to adapt these methods for a wide variety of students while incorporating feedback from families. Aligned with the latest 2020 National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) standards, it offers clear guidance for future educators on licensing requirements and supports instructors in meeting program accreditation goals. Author Julie A. Ray begins each chapter with a vignette highlighting the importance of assessment in real classrooms and concludes with three case studies, one for infants, one for preschoolers, and one for primary-grade students, addressing the unique challenges in each setting. To further support learning, a final project in the Appendix with a scoring rubric can be used for grading or accreditation tasks. Exercises throughout the text help students confidently apply assessment skills in a wide variety of early childhood educational settings.
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Chapter 1: Introduction to Developmentally Appropriate Assessment Practices
Chapter 2: Observation and Documentation: The Foundation of Assessment of Young Children
Chapter 3: Observation-Based Descriptive Assessment Methods
Chapter 4: Observation-Based Assessment Methods That Count or Rate
Chapter 5: Performance-Based Assessment Methods
Chapter 6: Informal Paper / Pencil Assessments for the Primary Grades
Chapter 7: Formal Standardized Assessments
Chapter 8: Using Portfolio Data to Plan Instruction
Chapter 9: Using Assessment Data to Support Development, Learning, and Program Improvement
Chapter 10: Using Assessments in Tiered Systems of Support
Chapter 11: Assessing Children with Developmental Delays or Disabilities
Chapter 12: Assessing Linguistically Diverse Children
Chapter 13: Families as Assessment Partners
Appendix A: Developmental Milestones
Appendix B
References
