Newark's Preschool Assessments

New Jersey Early Learning Assessment System - Language Arts Literacy - Fall (mid November), Winter (end of February), & Spring (early June)

The New Jersey Early Learning Assessment System is a comprehensive approach to early childhood assessment for children between the ages of three and kindergarten. The primary purpose of this assessment is to support learning. Teachers document learning to gain insight about what children know and can do, their strengths and interests, as well as areas of concern. They use this documentation to determine how they can more responsively plan instruction. A secondary purpose of this assessment is to provide information to the state about children's performance on the Expectations and Standards. Teachers, parents, administrators, school-based intervention teams, special education evaluations and subsequent reports, as well as IEP teams can also utilize them to identify each student's strengths and weaknesses to be addressed. 

Drawing on principles of effective early childhood assessment, NJELAS is an ongoing, curriculum-embedded performance assessment that relies on observations and work samples as the documentation for the assessment. To use the NJELAS, teachers follow three steps:

1. observe and document children's learning daily during everyday classroom activities and routines
2. collect, organize and reflect on the documentation during three collection periods (approximately 2 and a half months each) using Documentation Forms and the Child Folio

3. interpret, compare and evaluate the documentation using the Age by Age Accomplishments and the Child Profile.

Evaluation of documentation onto the profile occurs three times during the year at the following intervals:

Fall: mid November

Winter: end of February

Spring: early June

Teachers use what they learn from assessment to support children's learning throughout the year. They modify the environment, adjust their interactions with children, design meaningful learning experiences, and communicate with families. At the end of the spring collection period, teachers submit the scores for all children to the Office of Early Childhood Education at the NJDOE.

How is the NJELAS organized?

NJELAS has the following four parts:

1. Age by Age Accomplishments
2. Child Profile
3. Documentation Forms
4. Child Folio

1. Age by Age Accomplishments
• describes child accomplishments in the area of Language Arts Literacy based on the New Jersey Preschool Teaching and Learning Expectations and Kindergarten Core Curriculum Content Standards
• provides the criteria for teachers to use to compare the documentation they collect on each child in order to fairly and systematically evaluate children's performance
• is organized by age group (preschool and kindergarten)
• uses a continuous mastery continuum ranging from emergent (1) to competent (4) to show the range of children's performance within an age group
• describes each expectation/standard

Features of the Age by Age Accomplishments
• Questions are used to frame the indicators within the expectation/standard
• A set of 4 descriptive levels (emergent to competent) is provided for each expectation/standard
• Examples of ways to document each expectation/standard are provided

2. Child Profile is the data and scoring form used by teachers to score each child's performance for each 10 week data collection period. Teachers need one Child Profile for each child.

Features of the Child Profile
• Has a place to keep track of how each child is doing. Teachers record scores (1, 2, 3, 4) for the collection period
• Provides space to organize documentation by date when it's time to score

3. Documentation Forms
There are four ways to document children's progress; Class Matrix, Anecdote Form, Work Sample Form, Literacy Prompt Form. These organize and streamline the NJELAS assessment process, provide a structure for studying children's learning and encourage teachers to ask the questions: what does the documentation tell me about what the child knows and what the child can do.

Class Matrix
The matrix tracks documentation for each child, determines what to collect, and allows teachers to reflect on instructional planning weekly, monthly, and at the end of a collection period

Features of the Class Matrix
• Shows at a glance the documentation collected (or needed) for the entire class (all children's names are written on the left column)
• Is arranged by month and type of documentation (anecdote, work sample, literacy prompt) and has boxes to check or date as documentation is collected

Anecdote Form is the primary means of collecting information about children. Observations of children's interactions are written in a factual way, and linked to expectations/standards.

Features of the Anecdote Form
• Organizes anecdotes for each child
• Links written anecdotes to Expectations/Standards
• Ensures that documentation has been collected for all Expectations/ Standards
• Is the primary means of collecting information about children, with 6-8 anecdotes collected each period
 

Work Sample Form provides a place to describe or explain the learning evident in the child's work. These can be photos of children's work or the work itself

Features of the Work Sample Form
• Provides a place to check the primary Expectations/ Standards and any additional Expectations/Standards that are demonstrated in the work
• Allocates space to record how the work was completed, the child's language and thinking, and additional comments, when appropriate
• Makes the work meaningful for assessment purposes
• Is attached to work samples and photographs kept in the Child Folio

• Makes up 3-4 of the pieces of evidence for each collection period.

Literacy Prompt Form enables the teacher to document children's learning during an informal book reading and to focus on a child's understanding of the content of the book.

Features of the Literacy Prompt Form
• Provides guidelines for effective instruction including ideas for questions to ask children
• Provides a way to gather meaningful documentation related to specific Expectations/Standards
• Is used 1 or 2 times with each child during each collection period
• Should be used during lessons or activities done individually or in small groups, but not with the entire class at the same time

4. Child Folio is the place to store each child's assessment documentation. It usually consists of a folder with the child's name, and all of the ELAS forms. Approximately 12 pieces of documentation by the end of each 10 week collection period should be in each child's folio:

After 10 weeks, each child's folio will have:

• 6 - 8 anecdotes (an anecdote is a brief factual description of child's behavior and language)
• 3 - 4 work samples (attached to work sample forms) 1 - 2 literacy prompts (with form)

 

What skills are assessed?

NJELAS is closely aligned to the NJ Preschool Expectations:

EXPECTATION 1: Children listen and respond to environmental sounds, directions and conversations.

EXPECTATION 2: Children converse effectively in their home language, English or sign language for a variety of purposes relating to real experiences and different audiences.

EXPECTATION 3a: Child demonstrate emergent print awareness.

EXPECTATION 3b: Child demonstrates knowledge and enjoyment of books.

EXPECTATION 3c: Child demonstrates phonological awareness.

EXPECTATION 4: Children demonstrate emergent writing skills.