Authenticity of Assessment in Inclusive Spaces

Barriers related to assessment may prevent high quality transition practices from occurring. Traditionally, assessment of young children involves table top testing where an assessor asks a child to perform standardized tasks that are often lacking developmental appropriateness with unfamiliar materials, in unfamiliar environments like a sterile clinical setting, and/or with people who are unfamiliar to the child. True skills may not be observed under such conditions as a traditional assessment. Alternatively, professionals today across multiple sectors use authentic assessment to measure child outcomes that can be used to better understand children’s development and learning during the transition from preschool to kindergarten process. Authentic “real-life” assessments measure skills that are functional rather than contrived, discrete tasks. This research-to-practice article shares practical application for authentic assessment leading to high quality transitions for children and families from preschool to kindergarten.