Keeping It “R-E-A-L” with Authentic Assessment

The inclusion of young children with disabilities has remained a function of the Head Start program since its inception in the 1960s when the United States Congress mandated that children with disabilities comprise 10% of the Head Start enrollment (Zigler & Styfco, 2000 Zigler, E. and Styfco, S. J. 2000. Pioneering steps (and fumbles) in developing a federal preschool intervention. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education., 20: 67–70. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Standardized, norm-referenced tests used to identify children with delays are problematic because (a) they have low treatment validity, (b) they are not universally designed or adaptable, (c) it is difficult to capture the real life behaviors/skills of young children, (d) they do little to facilitate collaboration with parents, (e) they lack sensitivity to changes in the child's development and learning, and (f) children with disabilities are often excluded from group data. This study examined the use of an alternative approach that uses early childhood authentic assessment to determine a young child's eligibility for special services. Results of this study have implications for adopting authentic assessment practices.