Academics and Academic Assessment in Early Education

This entry focuses on academic practices and assessment of academics in early childhood spanning preschool to third grade. Academic content areas as defined here include instructional content and teaching practices for the areas of literacy, mathematics, science, and social studies. The topics of academic instruction and associated assessment practices are vast and could be approached from any number of perspectives. The perspective taken here is to highlight core influences on academic content and practices in typical early childhood programs and elementary schools.

Three key topics are discussed with reference to multiple content areas: academic content standards, theoretically and empirically guided models of instruction, and academic assessments. The final topic area discusses the different types and purposes of assessments, inclusive of assessments for learning and assessments of ...