Assessment at the Ocean Vista Pre-K is observational and embedded in everyday activities, addressing the child’s developing sense of self, language development, numeracy, socio-emotional development, learning skills, cognition, physical development, and safety/health, whether the child expresses him/herself in the home language and/or in English. During snack time, numeracy skills and the ability to follow complex instructions are assessed as children are encouraged to “take 3 carrots, pass them to Cynthia, then pour your milk!” At the writing center, children’s small motor dexterity is carefully observed, dated, and documented. Children’s progress is tracked so that children with specific learning challenges can be offered specially designed learning experiences to accelerate their progress. Antonio, who continually repeated play with the same truck day after day, was shown the film “Polar Express,” which inspired him to explore new areas of imagination. He built a wooden block train track, assembled toy animals, and enacted an exciting dramatic play scenario as a result.
With concrete, hands-on experiences as a foundation, teachers observe children’s growing abilities to express themselves through an increasingly complex vocabulary in their home language and English. Observations are recorded as children work in the garden, discussing the changes in their plant’s height, and comparing to last week’s results. Children predict: “The corn will get to be the biggest!” “No, the radishes will!” formulating, then later testing, hypotheses. Patterns are created as children plant seedlings in rows, allocating 3 seeds per space.
Teachers conduct regular self-evaluations as well, using the data as a guide to planning a wider range of learning experiences and further enriching the school environment. Parent evaluations of the school’s services, in addition to daily communication, keep the staff and leadership apprised of program strengths and areas in need of improvement. The school’s leadership regularly observes and conferences with teachers, maintaining high standards of professionalism.
One of the most important assessments of all, the determination of whether to place Pre-K children in a bilingual or English kindergarten, is made as a team consisting of parents, teachers, and District administration. Parents receive an overview of the research regarding home language instruction versus English only, have the opportunity to discuss choices with their child’s teacher, then make the final informed decision regarding their child’s kindergarten placement in the setting in which (s)he has the greatest opportunities for success.