Preschooler's progress: advancing preschool is high on many legislative agendas. How to measure success is next.

• Author: Clotheir, Steffanie

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Learning in preschool is magic. Preschoolers play with various containers in the sandbox, predict what will happen to leaves when the wind blows and make patterns with colored blocks. They pretend to be bus drivers and passengers on their way to school or doctors and patients in a hospital. They explain to the class that what they've drawn is really a dinosaur. They work hard to get the glue to hold their art project together.

Early learning is not only about cognitive development--whether a child recognizes certain letters and numbers, but also physical, social and emotional--like coordination, motivation, cooperation and self-control.

Although decades of research have resulted in many different assessment tools on whether young children are learning what they need to, researchers still debate how best to measure a young child's development.

ACCOUNTABILITY ANXIETY

There is a lot of anxiety about accountability: Who you are going to hold responsible and for what? Experts aren't concerned about studies of preschool programs or practices in the classroom as long as they are well-designed. But deciding the fate of preschool programs based on children's test scores does raise concerns. Today's teachers commonly use child assessments to help their instruction. But judging schools on these results could change what today is creative, play-based, multi-dimensional learning into practices that are geared only to the assessments. Instead of going outside to explore the changing seasons to learn science and math and engage their curiosity, children may be kept inside to sit and practice their letters and numbers.

In Connecticut, lawmakers have debated how to conduct kindergarten assessments, and leaders have asked questions about what data to collect, what sample of children to test, and how best to carry out an assessment. But ultimately, according to Representative Denise Merrill, Appropriations Committee chair, what they are asking about is the impact of programs. "We need to know how children are progressing and which programs are helping," she says.

Last year, a record 36 states increased funding for preschool programs. With these investments in new or expanded preschool programs, lawmakers want to make sure the money is well-spent. The Pew Charitable Trusts created the National Early Childhood Accountability Task Force to help lawmakers understand the controversial issues associated with making preschool and kindergarten...