NAEYC Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) recently released a set of professional standards designed to build a strong early childhood workforce. The document outlines researched-based skills and practices that early childhood educators should be able to demonstrate.

Among the 6 professional standards is one that focuses on child observation and assessment. The language of the standard is located below.

STANDARD 3 – Child Observation, Documentation, and Assessment

Early childhood educators:

• Understand that the primary purpose of assessments is to inform instruction and planning in early learning settings.
• Know how to use observation, documentation, and other appropriate assessment approaches and tools. Early childhood educators
• Use screening and assessment tools in ways that are ethically grounded and developmentally, culturally, ability, and linguistically appropriate to document developmental progress and promote positive outcomes for each child. In partnership with families and professional colleagues, early childhood educators
• Use assessments to document individual children’s progress and, based on the findings, to plan learning experiences.

Key competencies include:

• 3a: Understand that assessments (formal and informal, formative and summative) are conducted to make informed choices about instruction and for planning in early learning settings.
• 3b: Know a wide range of types of assessments, their purposes, and their associated methods and tools.
• 3c: Use screening and assessment tools in ways that are ethically grounded and developmentally, ability, culturally, and linguistically appropriate in order to document developmental progress and promote positive outcomes for each child.
• 3d: Build assessment partnerships with families and professional colleagues.

You can see further explanations of these competencies and learn about the other professional standards here.

For the main article Child Observation, CLICK HERE

For the article Types of Observations, CLICK HERE

For the article Tips for Collecting Observations, CLICK HERE

For the article Include the Children and Families, CLICK HERE