Review the standards for early childhood education in your district. If your district does not have standards until kindergarten, review the kindergarten standards and determine what background knowledge students will need to achieve those standards. Consider motor, social and decision-making skills as well as academic knowledge; the ability to choose a learning center without help can be a milestone for a preschooler.
Design test questions that can assess these standards without requiring extensive reading or writing. Examples include asking students to point at which picture has the most butterflies to test counting, asking them what sound the letter B represents to test phonics, or asking them to tell about their favorite movie to test oral language. Break down the test into chunks that testers can administer orally in five- to ten-minute time periods to account for the short attention spans of preschoolers.
Provide teachers with a list of the standards. Throughout the year, have the teachers record observations of the students meeting these standards and collect student work that meets the standards into a portfolio. Allow teachers some flexibility in choosing what does and does not meet the standards; a student can meet an oral language standard by doing anything from reading stories to a stuffed animal to telling the teacher about a trip to the zoo.
Train testers in the standards as well as in early childhood behavior. Toward the end of the school year, have the testers come in and observe the students over a period of about a week. The testers should record their observations of the students without reference to the teachers' observations to see how they compare.
Have the testers administer the oral test to each student before they leave. The tests should be one-on-one to minimize distractions and maximize student comfort.
Use the teacher observations, tester observations and test scores to form a picture of the students' progress.