School-Age Assessment Tools

I believe that children should be asessed in the 7 domains of development:self and social development, language and literacy development, english language development, cognitive development, mathematical development, physical development, and health. Assessing in the above 7 domains will help an individual who is assessing better understand where a child ranges holistically. The agency that I work for uses an assessment tool called Desired Results Developmental Profile which is a great assessment tool to gauge where a child is in the many domains. This assessment tool is first used within the first 60 days of the child being enrolled in the program. The assessment tool again is used 6 months into the program to gauge the progress of the child.

Assessment tools are an asset to educators, children and families. Assessment pinpoint out the areas a child is acheiving high in and pinpoints out the areas of which the child struggles. After assessments are taken, educators are able to individualize their curriculum or leson plans to meet the individual needs of each student.

The country or region that I chose to research was Tanzania. Tanzania is a country that lacks the best of education services to their children. In Tanzania there is an assessment tool used annualy to gauge where their children are academically. The assessment tool is called the UWEZO asessment. Assessments in Tanzania are performed very differently than in the U.S.A. Each year volunteers are trained to assess children. The volunteers are not opaid for their services. The assessment tool is performed in the homes of the children not like in the classrooms her in the U.S.A. The assessment is not performed on just one particular age group but is performed on all children between the ages of 5-16 years of age. Tanzania parents also have the right to refuse or decline assessments on their children.

The assessment tool consist of 3 test. The first test is called the Kiswahili test, the second test is called the English test, and the third test is called the Mathematics test. The Kiswahili test is an assessment to see if the child/ren are able to speak and read their home language. The English test is given to see if the students are able to understand English letters, writing, and sentences. The third test is used to see if the child is able to understand basic mathematic such as addition and subtraction.

Surprisingly, children with educated mothers perform better than those who do not have educated mothers. This is very simular to my country. Children who are raised in families who are educated perform better in school. In Tanzania, girls perform better than boys in all subjects. This was very surprising to me. I would have to imagine that boys are more focused on the work of the land with their fathers and girls have more time for studying. Not sure!! Urban based children perform better than rural-based children.

My research has informed me that assessments are valued in different countries. Assessments are used to help children succed academically. Tanzania's assessment did not focus on social, physical, health, or self development like I would have liked it to. Assessing holistically is a better aproach to knowing where a child fully stands in their development.