Examining conceptions of assessment among a social media-based sample of early childhood professionals

ABSTRACT

Education professionals’ conceptions of assessment can influence how they enact assessment with children. In this study, we explored the factor structure of a previously validated survey instrument, Brown’s Conceptions of Assessment Questionnaire (COA-III), when administered to a social-media-based sample of 241 U.S. early childhood professionals. We then used these results to examine participants’ conceptions and how these conceptions relate to one another. In common with prior research, the exploratory factor analysis yielded a 3-factor model of the participants’ conceptions of the purposes of assessment: assessment improves educational outcomes, assessment is irrelevant, and assessment as an accountability measure. Thus, the COA-III offers promise to educational researchers, policymakers, and professional preparation programs seeking to understand what early childhood professionals think and believe about the purpose of assessment. Further analyses—namely evidence of conflicting assessment beliefs—confirmed some of the complexities of assessing young children; such findings hold important implications for assessment-related training, policy, and practice.

Acknowledgments

We thank Jessica Halliday Hardie for her statistical support as well as Qinghua Chen, and X. Christine Wang for their feedback related to early childhood practice. And most of all, we thank all the early childhood professionals who responded to our survey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by an internal award, University Innovative Micro-Programs Accelerating Collaboration in Themes, to the second author.