What is VPK
We are required to do assessments because the Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten is a federally funded programs. The program is free to the parents and paid for by the federal goverment. Florida is one of the first states to have the 540 hour program offered to the parents for their 4 and 5 year old children. The children need to be 4 years old before September1 st.
Why are assessments required?
Assessments are done to see how the children are doing in the class. As we all know all children learn at different paces and in different ways. The assessments help us to find out if the children are learning what is being teached and if some children need more help than other children. And which subjects need more attention to while we are teaching it.
What we learn from the assessments.
You would not believe how many times you think a child is understanding what is being taught and when you do the assessment you find out they don't understand it. Or the child who looks at you while you are teaching and look at you like a deer caught in the headlights and you do the assessment and you find out they understand it. You can't go by which children are learning what is being taught by how the look or act while being taught.
Who sees the scores on the assessments?
The scores on the assessments are entered in the VPK website for each child. Each childs parents get a copy of the their childs scores. The preschool director also sees the scores. And I see the scores of course since I give the assessments.
Assesments are important in the classroom they help us to know how help teach the children. Each child learns in different ways and sometimes a child needs a little extra help in their learning.
My job is to get the children ready to move on to kindergarten.
