It will be necessary for many of your VPK teachers to receive professional development to learn how to administer and interpret, and apply results of screening and assessment instruments. As noted above, screening instruments are typically used in the early stages of a program to inform teachers about the areas of children's development that may require additional attention. A vision screening, for example, may reveal that a few children have vision needs that should be explored further. A social-emotional screening may reveal that the vast majority of children in a particular classroom have difficulty listening and following directions suggesting that the instructional focus for the whole group may be on developing the classroom skills necessary to attend to teacher instruction. Following the whole group lessons, it may become apparent that one or two children require more individual attention to master the classroom skills. Ongoing assessment can provide helpful information about the impact of individual or small group instruction.

A teacher may conduct an assessment designed to measure growth and progress in emergent reading skills. The instrument may be administered at specific intervals (e.g., every Friday) so that the outcome data can be used to create developmentally appropriate lesson plans for the following week. Remember that assessment data can be used to modify the learning environment of the entire program and is not limited to informing just classroom instruction. For example, there may be occasions when assessment data reveal that children's vocabulary development is delayed and parent/teacher collaboration and training are recommended.

Information gained from screening and assessment instruments is real-time data that can help teachers to create learning environments that are meaningful, developmentally appropriate, and linked to educational standards.