CPM & new Pre-K guidelines: With the changing in the 23-24 school year, will the C-PM testing material be updated to reflect these new guidelines?
Answer
The supporting resources for the CIRCLE Progress Monitoring assessment have been updated to reflect any changes needed with the Pre-K guidelines update.
It’s important for all educators to keep in mind that assessment tools, such as C-PM, do not explicitly evaluate each of the PKG items. Valid and reliable assessment tools like C-PM are aligned to state or national standards however will not explicitly measure every single standard or guideline. The reason for this is that standards and guidelines change, therefore assessment tool vendors and their researchers and statisticians work hard to create bell curve models to help us understand where students may typically land within the scope of skills that are measured in the tool, which align to the standards and/or guidelines. This reduces the desire to “teach to the test”, and instead gain an accurate, reliable snapshot of where a student is in their academic development based on data gathered through research.
C-PM was designed and validated as a criterion-referenced assessment. Criterion-referenced means that we are referencing how scores compare to a criterion such as a cut score or a benchmark. C-PM is a standardized, criterion-referenced tool that relates well to established standardized tests and is sensitive to growth in children’s skills over time. In other words, C-PM assesses the whole child in alignment to the updated guidelines and while taking state standards into consideration. We can ensure that given the nature of our criterion-referenced measures, CIRCLE Progress Monitoring continues to align with the updated Pre-K guidelines.
The supporting resources for the CIRCLE Progress Monitoring assessment have been revised to incorporate any necessary changes in accordance with the updated Pre-K guidelines.
It is important for educators to understand that assessment tools like C-PM do not explicitly evaluate each individual item in the Pre-K guidelines. Instead, they are designed to align with state or national standards, although they may not measure every single standard or guideline explicitly. This is because standards and guidelines are subject to change.
To address this, the creators of assessment tools, along with their researchers and statisticians, work diligently to develop bell curve models that provide insight into where students typically fall within the range of skills assessed by the tool, which aligns with the standards and/or guidelines. This approach helps to minimize the inclination to solely focus on teaching to the test and instead allows for an accurate and reliable assessment of a student's academic progress based on research data.
C-PM was specifically designed and validated as a criterion-referenced assessment, meaning that scores are compared to a specific criterion, such as a cut score or benchmark. It is a standardized tool that relates well to established standardized tests and is sensitive to the growth of children's skills over time.
In essence, C-PM evaluates the overall development of the child in accordance with the updated guidelines, while also considering state standards. Given the nature of our criterion-referenced measures, we can assure you that CIRCLE Progress Monitoring remains aligned with the updated Pre-K guidelines.