Here at St. Andrew’s, we begin the assessment process when children enter our schools.  Beginning with toddlers and going through Kindergarten, we follow the Brigance Inventory of Early Development.  This assessment tool is in the form of a checklist and is valuable to teachers and parents in noting developmental progress in social, language, self-help, cognitive, and motor areas.  Our philosophy of developmentally appropriate practice guides us in the direction of not testing young children but, rather, gathering data on each individual child’s development through various assessment tools according to age groups.

 

For all of our children, toddlers through kindergarten, teachers prepare a portfolio that advances to each child’s next year here at St. Andrew’s. Portfolios include documentation of each child’s progress in the four developmental domains: cognitive, physical, social, and emotional.  Our portfolios may include developmental checklists, samples of children’s work, anecdotal records, and pictures of children in work and play.

At parent conferences teachers discuss with parents their child’s progress.  When parents have concerns about their child’s developmental progress, St. Andrew’s will help parents with referrals to appropriate resources.

 

In order to keep individual children’s records confidential, children’s assessments are kept in secure locations such as locked closets or file cabinets.  Parents requesting to see their child’s file and contents of the child’s file may do so in the school office.  These assessments are accessible to the child’s teachers, assistant teachers, office administrative staff, and the director of St. Andrew’s Weekday School and Great Beginnings.  Others having access to individual children’s files are Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (TDFPS - Child Care Licensing division) for regulatory reasons and inspections required by state licensing of the school and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (N​AEYC - Accreditation and Academy) for reasons of assessing and inspections for accreditation of the school.

 

Anyone besides the above mentioned parents, teachers, school administrative staff, TDFPS and NAEYC personnel requesting access to children’s files will require written permission from the child’s parents/guardians.