It is important to ask yourself, "Why do I need this information?" The answer to that question will guide which instruments you select and how to use the data. If you need to know whether all of your children can hear and see without impairment, then a vision and hearing screening with all of the children is appropriate. If you determine through observation that a few of the children in your class are having particular difficulty answering who, what, when, and where questions during circle time, then it would be appropriate to conduct further assessment of their skills to determine whether instructional changes (e.g., changing the frequency, duration and intensity) impacted their rate of learning or acquisition of skills. Please contact your local early learning coalition for additional information on specific screening and assessment instruments and practices.

The Department of Education has worked with the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) to develop the Florida Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) Assessment. The VPK Assessment is designed as a progress monitoring tool for VPK teachers to gain information about how their group of children is progressing. The information from the VPK Assessment can help teachers to guide instruction to meet the individual needs of each child. The VPK Assessment includes four measures aligned to the VPK Education Standards:

Print Knowledge Measure
Print Knowledge assesses the child’s ability to recognize letters or words, and his/her knowledge of letter names (both upper and lower case) and the sounds they make.
Phonological Awareness Measure
Phonological Awareness is the awareness and manipulation of the different sounds in a word. The Phonological Awareness measure assesses the child’s ability to:
Blend (put together) a word if it is broken up into smaller sounds or syllables
Blend a compound word
Recognize the remaining word when part of the stimulus word is taken away.
Mathematics Measure
The Mathematics measure assesses early numeracy skills across three different areas: counting skills, numerical relations skills, and arithmetic reasoning skills.
Oral Language/Vocabulary Measure
The Oral Language/Vocabulary measure: