Early years assessments

Teaching Strategies Gold (TSG) is one of several companies providing an assessment system to test pre-school children in kindergartens and care centres in the USA. The test is a `whole child` assessment which means it covers social, emotional, physical, language, and cognitive development. Teachers are encouraged to log children`s behaviour on to computers using videos, audio files, journals and photos which are then uploaded to a central database. The plan is to have these updated every 10 to 12 weeks.

Some parents in Colorado are worried about the safety of their children`s private data and are questioning why it is being collected. There are doubts that the data mining is about improving child development and learning outcomes and anxiety that the scheme is to be extended.

http://michellemalkin.com/2014/10/09/look-whos-data-mining-your-toddlers/

A teacher who blogged about TSG a year ago is critical that the assessments turn teachers into data managers and students into data generators to serve the corporations. "Much of GOLD is based on observation - or kid-watching."  One of the problems is the time it takes to gather and enter the huge amounts of data required for each child which could be better spent teaching and interacting with the children. Another is the negative impact the information may have on a child`s future.

"Teacher as data manager and teacher as technician will grow and could eventually erase teacher as professional decision maker..."

http://www.pegwithpen.com/2013/09/do-not-go-for-gold-teaching-strategies.html

The articles are worth reading as a warning to those less familiar with the idea of assessing toddlers. As for early years practitioners in Scotland, here is a discussion some of them have had about using interactive learning diaries for students which are considered compatible with Curriculum for Excellence. At the moment using these systems is voluntary.
:
http://community.tes.co.uk/tes_scotland_early_years/f/49/t/584489.aspx

We can see that people are keen to use the ILDs, including parents who enjoy seeing what their children have been doing at nursery, but have they any idea where this is leading? The information gathered about pre-school children is stored with the company and a forum member asks do they have back-up in case the system is hacked? Yes, that is always a possibility but there is more than that to worry about. Intimate details about children are being gathered for a purpose which has nothing to do with what is best for the children and, for good or ill, it will follow them throughout their lives.  Here`s a link to the company:

https://orbit.so/