DOCUMENT RESUME ED 195 334 PS 011 842 TITLE Tests and Measures in Early Childhood. Report Ion Task 1. INSTITUTION Educational Testing Service, Princeton,N.J. SPONS AGENCY Office of Child Development (DHEW), Washington, D.C. TEPORT NO ETS-PP-72-17 PUB DATE 72 GRANT 0Lp-9-2992-A/8/0 NOTE 137p. EDRS PRICE MF01/PC06 Plu Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Child Developrent: *Classification: *Educational Environment: *F,mily Environment: *Measures (Individuals) : *r^ung Children ABSTRACT This is the first et two reportson existing measurement techniques for assessing characteristics ofthe home and educational environments and personal characteristicsof children from birth tc 9 years of age. In order to facilitatethe use of currently available measures, tests have been categorizedin terms of 10 broad areas and subcategorized in terms of theconstructs they measure. The 10 areas of classification used are: (1) test batteries measuring many constructs: (21 measures of aptitudeand/or intelligence: (31 measures of the ability tocope with cognitive demands: (4) measures of the ability to cope with personal-social demands: (51 family measures: (6) measures of language development: (7) measures et sensory-motor or physical skills or status: (8) measures of subject-matter achievement:(91 measures of teacher and cr program: and (10) miscellaneous measures. As indicated above, each measure was further assigned to one or more construct areas depending upon test content. For example, the broad area "ability tocope with cognitive demands" includes tests measuring the followingand other constructs: attention: attitude toward school: curiosity:memory: and reasoning. In separate sections of the report the methodologyand general conclusions of the review are indicated. Titlosof tests are listed by construct in Appendix A. Appendix B providesa guide to the different test listings.(Author/RH) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best thatcan be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, OF INTEREST NOTICE EDUCATION & WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF Facility has assigned EDUCATION t for process THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO. Al OUCEO EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM our ment, this document THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN. s also nterest to the clearing- ATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS ho ted to the right. Index. STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRE- ing d reflect their special SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF f view. EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY PR-72-17 TESTS AND MEASURES IN EARLYCHILDHOOD Report I September 1972 2 EDUCATIONAL TESTING SE-IVICE PRINCETON, NEW 4C-T-1:,,6Y TESTS AND MEASURES IN EARLY CHILDHOOD Report I on Task 1 under OCD Grant Number H-2993 A/H/0 September 1572 3 This is the first oftwo reportson the status of existing measurement techniquesfor assessing characteristics ofchildren between the ages of0 and 9 and of their homeand educational environments.The following peoplecontributed to it: Scarvia Andersop, Thomas Barrows, Ruth Ekstrom,Ann Jungeblut, Elsa Rosenthal, Gray Sidwell,Irving Cantor, Marcy Gekoski, Ann McLaughlin,and Louise Ritenour. 4 Contents Pa e 1. The task and the background for it 1 2. Methodology 5 3. General conclusions 7 4. References 31 Appendix A: Titles of Tests by Construct 33 Appendix B: Guide to the Separate Test Listings . .132 1. The task and the background for it In spite of the earlier work by Freud, Montessori, Pestalozzi, Froebel, and even Piaget, the young childwas not discovered in a massive way by psychologists, educators, and government agencies until the early 1960s. Hunt, Bloom, and Bruner were the majorconveyers of the message that the first eight years of life are the most important forhuman development, and there was concomitant interest in the critical effect of the environment and learning situations on both personality and cognition. Among the most compelling evidence for the significance of the earlyyears was research demonstrating the wide range of learnedresponses which the human infant was capable of; it was not necessary to waitupon maturation for the benefits of educational intervention. Membership in APA Division 7 (Developmental Psychology) burgeoned; special centers for the study of young children (including the handicapped and retarded) were established; Head Start becamean instant success followed by Follow Through, Parent and Child Centers, and other national programs administered by a new special Office of Child Development in HEW; ESEA Title I funds were used to establish kindergartens in places that had never had kindergartens before; alternative magic curricula for the. very young were put forth by university professors and by publishers with a good eye for the market; industries began to experiment with day care centers as an employee benefit (or necessity in some areas of short labor supply); Oscar of TV's Sesame Street became a word in households of all economic conditions that contained children from three to six; another television effort, The Electric Company, followed with itsattempts to teach more children to read than the schools had been successful in doing;efforts were begun to establish a new profession of "child development associate";and social scientists who had formerly based most of their theorieson the be- havior of college freshmen found themselves deeply involved in research and evaluation efforts with subjects who could not fillout machine-scorable answer sheets. None of these phenomena shows signs of abating. Measurement came to serve the operational and research effortscom- mitted to young children in both positive and negativeways. Positively, it was recognized that good measureswere necessary to the elucidation of the processes, sequences, and interactions of development, and that they could aid in both the scientist's search for understanding and theprac- titioner's decisions about appropriatetreatment of individuals and groups. The chief misus- of measurement in thisarea has occurred when a test or measure was co used with a broader behavioral construct; e.g.,. whenscores on a picture vocabulary test were interpreted as "intelligence"or when responses to smiling and frowning photographs were generalized to conclu- sions about "self-concept."Sometimes these problems could be traced to policy pressures to produce a report quickly, when timewas inadequate either for sound instrument development and selectionor for the necessary accompa- nying rational processes. In other cases, the difficulty arose because untrained personnel assumed or were forced into evaluation roles. In all instances of using measurement with young children, however, theenormous 2 measurement difficulties attending any act ofpsychological and educational response system are exacerbated by thechild's relatively undifferentiated changes characteristic ofhis first few years. and the rapid developmental learning can It is even the case that developmentalchanges or meaningful sometimes occur during the very processof measurement. have been de- Doubtless the extraordinary numberof new measures that partial reflection of veloped for young children duringthe last decade is a multiple dissatisfactions with the waysprevious these difficulties--and the researchers or evaluators have dealtwith them. But the same difficulties have led researchers also to much reachingfor instruments placed on the necessarily bad. shelf somewhere by someoneelse. Neither response is desire for scientific Still, it is certainly inefficientand contrary to the adequate one comparabtlity of results to develop a newmeasure when an inappropriate measure already exists. It is lamentable, moreover,to use an investigator happens to be awareof primarily because it exists and the it. about Recently a number of scholars haveattempted to get information researchers and published and unpublished measuresfor young children to either situation. program directors sothat ignorance will.not prompt Johnson and Bommarito The most comprehensive attemptis probably that of mimeographed form in 1968. It lists (1971), which appeared in preliminary for children from birth toage 12, 322 unpublished but available measures and classified in terms of different aspectsof cognition; personality feelings toward the environment;characteristics emotional characteristics; per- of the child's environment; motorskills, brain injury, and sensory and interests ception and discrimination;physical attributes; attitudes and "other."For each not included in earliercategories; social behavior; title, author, age range, measure, information on thefollowing is provided: validity, variable, type of measure, source,description, reliability and author, measure, and at least one selectedreference. There are indexes by publication should be quiteuseful to researchers and subject matter, and the the nature of studies. However, because of and those conducting evaluation specialized training in assess- the instruments liited,practitioners without and indeed the authorsdo ment should probably notbe encouraged to use it, does not provide anyoverall not address that group. Even though the volume child development, it evaluation of the field of testsand measurements in of the art. is a useful resource for anassessment of the state mostly published Another major effort in this area--onethat encompasses They review 80 tests--is that of Annie Butlerand her-colleagues(1971). evaluation, or research at tests considered usablefor diagnosis,