Thursday, October 31, 2019

Entrepreneurial Leadership Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Entrepreneurial Leadership - Assignment Example These niches can then help with changing the characteristics of an industry while allowing the entrepreneur to continue to grow within the market (Drucker, 2010). The strategy which is created then begins to motivate and influence others within a given environment, which allows others to become proactive in finding the same types of solutions while creating a sense of value within a given environment. It is the main strategy both for personal growth and in relation to others which then builds opportunities and helps with personal, community and business growth while allowing for the vision and motivation to remain dynamic and to assist with continuous growth in the community (Tarabishy, 2006). The model which is created then relies on both personal and community leadership and development for continuous and dynamic growth within an organization or by an individual. Authentic Leaders and Organizations The organization which would thrive the most with the authentic leader is the small business or individual entrepreneur. The main concept which would help with this type of organization is based on the concept of positive leadership. The vision and mission of a smaller organization can always be led by an individual who is continuously working with the dynamics of uncertainty in this environment. As dynamic changes occur in the market an entrepreneur and small business can easily move with the fluctuations. More important, an authentic leader will always respond to this in a positive manner while finding different alternatives that provide better solutions. More important, these solutions are transparent, as opposed to being based on the... Entrepreneurial Leadership The role of entrepreneurs and the way in which they influence others then helps to create contributions within society while forming a sense of leadership that ensures personal and community growth. When looking at the various theories of entrepreneurial leadership, it can be seen that there are specific qualities that each leader should have. For an entrepreneurial leader to work effectively there needs to be a sense of vision which is created through a long term approach. Each leader should understand what the vision and mission is within a specific organization and should be able to communicate this to others (Kouzes, 2008). For example, when listening to Steve Case’s interview on entrepreneurs, there is a focus on being forward looking and sharing a vision. This particular concept is one which has to start individually first, then becomes a part of the team. The same concept of leadership is applied with the outlook of Steve Case, specifically with recognizing that an entr epreneur works first by understanding their individual vision and needs. The leadership attributes include perseverance, understanding a vision and continuing to work toward motivating and meeting the goal, specifically which works toward motivating others (Case, 2011). The concept of entrepreneurial leadership is one which is based on different characteristics and actions of an individual. More important than the basic management needs for an organization is the ability for an entrepreneur to understand the vision and mission of an organization and to move forward in the right direction.

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

To Implement Primary Prevention Principles Designed to Address an Assignment

To Implement Primary Prevention Principles Designed to Address an Issue of Concern to the Entire School Community - Assignment Example   School psychologists, as well as school consultants help in the prevention program by providing school leaders a way to expose several procedures of how to deal with several problems of children, more particularly, student achievement, self-esteem enhancement, substance abuse, or crisis situations within school limits (Shaw, M. C., Goodyear, R. K., 1984). Nowadays, children are more demanding than in the previous era’s. Some children rather than others cannot make it normally. They need special and supportive training to get into the stream. (Stephen J. M., Astrid M. O’ M., March 2008). For the appraisal of these children which are usually left behind, prevention programs are being conducted by many school leaders. According to school psychologists, special training programs are required to be conducted in the premature level of their studies so as to make them build up their strong character. Prevention programs are one of them to help the students psychologically as well as mentally to enhance their behavior and get to know of dealing with certain critical situations which make them brave enough to start running again among the other normal children. Program to implement primary prevention principles: Primary schools have some funding collected to support pre- level children who are not making expected progress. The main aim of Prevention Programs is to raise the standard of all children. Strategies are to be made in order to give the children additional support in achievement as well as in dealing with another critical issue like substance abuse or crises management. Primary prevention program is a significant program that brings changes in the structural framework of each educational unit. This helps the children in memorizing common practices and consistent application of positive or negative reinforcement.  

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Self Reflective Of Teamwork Experience Nursing Essay

Self Reflective Of Teamwork Experience Nursing Essay Good teamwork plays a crucial role in implementing and fulfilling common goal quicker and better in a team project. Every team member plays his or her particular role and takes on different responsibilities which combined together can make the team function well and achieve common goal. In different stages of teamwork, conflicts or arguments may occur as members have different standpoints which need be harmonized within the team. The key to effective teamwork is to exploit each team roles unique abilities to motivate them play up strengths and avoid their weaknesses with a proper balance. Through teamwork, I clearly recognize my role characteristics, learn to develop my strong points and circumvent weaknesses in the team, and draw lessons and reflections on how to deal with emergencies happened in teamwork. Every member in a team will have his or her role different from others. According to the Team Role Theory that Dr Meredit identified and developed, different individuals act different team roles to varying degrees which he grouped into nine general kinds (Belbin D.M., 2007). By identifying characteristics of different kind of roles, we can ensure to make the most of every member and manage weaknesses to avoid them. There are four roles in my team. Student A is a shaper; Student B and student C are team-workers; Student D is an implementer; and I am a completer finisher. Completer finishers, just as its name implies, are painstaking, conscientious and used most effectively at the end of a task worked as quality controller, to search out errors and omissions, modify and polish them, and finally make sure the task delivers on time (Belbin D.M., 2007). But on the other side, completer finishers are inclined to worry unduly because of their perfectionism and have difficulty letting go and delegating work (West M, 1994). My role is important to teamwork guaranteeing task finished as scheduled and improving team performance to high quality. As completer finishers are always perfectionists with conscientious and disciplined characteristics, I have the capacity for follow-through and attention to detail, to spot errors and gaps and modify them for better. I do not allow any delay in task completing and think highly of punctuality. Owning to my role characteristics, I always keep an eye on the team members work process to recognize if task is undertaken as scheduled timetable and finished per our completion requirements. This works effectively and efficiently to make our team goal accomplished and standardized. But I also need admit that I am easily irritable and worried unduly, which might bring unnecessary air of tension to the team members and will affect their personal emotions and somewhat derail the work efficiency. For instance, when student A did not finish the scheduled task on time, I will thin k it was quite an irresponsible act and get quite fussed. During the teamwork experience, I felt teamwork is not an easy job. In the evolve of team building, Tuckmans teamwork theory of Four Stages of Group Development can help me better understand and manage various problems or unexpected circumstances that might happen at different stages of team development (Miller DL, 2003). According to Tuchman, there are four phrases in team evolve: forming, storming, norming and performing (Tuckman, online). During my experience from this teamwork, in the four different stages of group development, both positive and negative circumstances happened and need be taken care of. The initial stage of team development is forming. In this stage, individuals are not united quite well yet and it will be difficult to reach agreement. Each member is eager to find their place and hardly can feel a sense of belonging within the team (Scott D. J., 2000). As members are nearly strangers, they do not know clearly about their purpose and strongly need a leaders guidance to tell them why they are together. To overcome the problems caused for the forming stage and prepare for the following team task, our team opened some meetings in the library to build trust within each other. But some unexpected thing happened in our first meeting. Student A did not show up when everybody else were waiting for his appearance. He was not in Preston and went outing at that time. He did not check email while the notice of meeting was spread within the team by email only as we usually use email for connection and not thought for the accident somebody might not check email sometimes. This was an unhappy accident and we learnt to recheck for some unconfirmed uncertainties to avoid such accidents happening again. Through meetings, my leader illustrated the team task and general agenda and regulations for task completion. Tasks were divided and allotted to each person concerned. This stage is important as it paves the way to next team stages smooth development. Each members strengths and weaknesses need be identified and thus can make sure each one play up strength and be arranged to finish the most appropriate part. If we can allocate different tasks to the right person, efficiency of teamwork will be elevated greatly which will do better to individual motivation and avoid less conflicts or complaints within the team. When the forming stage finished, individuals began to see themselves as part of the team and will sense a belonging and motivated to work together. The storming stage is coming as clash of views and collision of all sorts of train of thought slowly gather together which is enough to make a storm for both brains and teamwork (Tuckman, 1977). In this stage, team members can easily challenge each other due to individuals held different points of view towards the same thing. Using Tuchmans word to say, conflict and contradiction typify this stage as differences surface. Actually this happens many times in our team discussion. Each individual had different attitudes towards same question, and all would appreciate others to accept and think the way as has suggested. For example, when we were discussing in one of the meetings, student D expressed his opinions with his standpoints which student B and me thought good and gave support. But student A and student C had quite different ideas. The refore conflict is unavoidable. If we vote to decide which idea will be adopted, student A and student C will feel unsatisfied and reduce teamwork initiative. I figured out that student A and student Cs standpoints had some plus points if melted into student Ds ideas, so I tried to convince both sides to modify their ideas and harmonize a generally accepted scheme. For many times we felt the storming stage was wasting lots of time for endless arguing and loss of focus on the completion of common task. But through our efforts to polish each other based on mutual respects, we finally learnt the further meaning of teamwork and realized in a team the collective interests and team performance is above all. This is a stage for team members to harmonize their ideas and team leader played important role to coordinate and help for decision making to the method of how to get the task done. Besides, each team member should not only learn independent thinking, but also to appreciate and respect others ideas and opinions, thus to figure out some balance within the team and finish the team goal in a peaceful and beneficial way. When experiencing a smooth transition of the storming stage, the stage of norming seems to be overcome more naturally and easily. The norming stage is a stage where team members start to trust more on each other and unite together to process the task with more teamwork with a growing sense of togetherness (Gersick, 1988). With the forming and storming stages development, our team gradually grew more mature and teamwork was achieved more effectively and efficiently. Team members now would follow team principles and behave for the best of the team. The stage of performing is the final stage which focused on task refreshing, implementing and completing. All teamwork combined to provide synergy for performance is delivered through people working effectively together (Tuckman, online). In this stage our team had many modifications towards task structure and manifestation. Thus team members can be allotted for new tasks or complete for others tasks as well. We had an accident in this stage which was finally settled imminent but no threatening to final team performance. Task of conclusion was assigned to complete by Student A which I emphasized many times in our discussion. He did not spell any disagreement before but didnt finish for this part until the deadline for task completion. Despite his irresponsibility, I also made a mistake that silence did not mean agreement. But it was urgent and no time to look into who was to be blamed, finally team leader took on the responsibility to finish this part by himself. Despite this little accident, process executions of our teamwork were quite smooth and efficient. Team members finished their tasks as scheduled and we worked together to point out each others mistakes and improve team performance in final presentation. Through the four stages of group development, I learnt that good communications and discipline are very important to make a team work more efficient and unity together more tightly. Besides, mutual respects, trusts and understanding are essential to achieve common goal. When people learn to appreciated and support each others efforts, individual is highly motivated and inspired to improve work efficiency. That is the charm of teamwork which I enjoy for the most. From this teamwork experience, I strongly feel the importance of teamwork and the amazement it may bring for quality task completion and goal achievement. It teaches me to coordinate with others and as an individual to put group interest in the first place. Maximizing individual strengths and minimizing weaknesses to achieve a teams common goal and harmonizing team members standpoints to some balance is the charm only teamwork can bring and make each individual have better play. Reference: Belbin.D.M, 2007. Belbin Team Role Theory. Online available at: http://www.belbin.com/rte.asp?id=8 Belbin.D.M, 2007. Belbins Team Roles:How understanding team roles can improve team performance. Online available at: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_83.htm Gersick CJG, 1988. Time and transition in work teams: Toward a new model of group development. Academy of management journal. Miller D.L., 2003. The Stages of Group Development: A Retrospective Study of Dynamic Team Processes. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, Volume 20, Issue 2, pages 121-134. Scott D. Johnson et al, 2000. Team development and group processes of virtual learning teams. College of Education, University of Illinois. Tuckman BW, 1977. Stages of small group development revisited. Group and organizational studies. Tcukman, 2001. FAMOUS MODELS, Stages of Group Development. Online available at: http://www.chimaeraconsulting.com/tuckman.htm Tuckman Theory, Tuckmans Team Development Model, online available at: www.e3smallschools.org/download/TuckmansTeamDevelopmentModel.pdf West M, 1994. Effective Teamwork. The British Psychology Society.

Friday, October 25, 2019

The Goal, By Eliyahu Goldratt Essay -- Productivity, Bottlenecks

When reading the book The Goal written by Eliyahu Goldratt, there were many lessons that I learned in order to have a clear and concise understanding of a positive level of productivity in a company. To have a positive level of productivity there are may components that are taken into consideration. Understanding what it actually means to be productive and how to increase the level of productivity by knowing the actual goal of the company that is trying to be reached and the components that go into the process of being productive. There are many factors that contribute to the level of productivity and being able to identify these factors is the key ingredient to having a successful level of productivity. When trying to improve productivity for a company, one must first understand what it means to be productive and what it means to not be productive. Jonah classifies that, â€Å"I have come to the conclusion that productivity is the act of bringing company closer to its goal. Every action that brings the company closer to its goal is productive. Every action that does not bring a company closer to its goal is not productive† (Goldratt, 32). But when determining on what is productive and not productive, the actual â€Å"goal of the company must first be determined. â€Å" If the goal is to make money, then an action that moves us toward making money is productive and an action that takes away from making money is non-productive† (Goldratt, 41). Alex has finally realized what it means for his company to be productive, but the key is to know how to see if the company is meeting the goal that is desired or in this case making money. There are certain measurements that ca n â€Å" express the goal of making money perfectly well, but which also perm... ...ventory and operational expenses decrease. Once the constraint is determined, the five-step process is followed to find out how to fix or correct the restraint. From what I haven taken from this book, I have come to a conclusion that with a few steps, you can find a way to make your company productive and meet the overall goal of your company. A clear understanding of what your company’s goal is and to be able to use this goal to understand what being productive means in terms of your company. Knowing the measurements that are needed to reach your goal. The ability to try new experiments and be able to brainstorm and talk together with a dedicated team of researchers that want to reach the goal and wont stop experimenting different processes until the end goal is met. Works Cited Goldratt, Eliyahu M., and Jeff Cox. The Goal. N.p.: Gower, 1989. Print.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

“Helping and Hating the Homeless” A summary of Peter Marin piece Essay

Peter Marin’s piece, â€Å"Helping and Hating the Homeless† first appeared in Harper’s Magazine (January 1987). It is an account of why some marginalized people â€Å"choose† homelessness and why middle-class culture finds them so threatening. In this piece, Marin explains to his readers that homeless people were once just like the rest of us. Homeless are considered annoying by most Americans. Marin describes the problem of homeless people and the lack of help for this growing problem. Marin had many strong points in his article on the homeless. Marin strongly points out that society does not understand the reasons for the homeless problem because most people are ignorant to the problem or are misinformed. First of all, there are many different reasons as to why the homeless became homeless, but most people categorize all of these reasons into one, the homeless. They think it is one major group of people with the same problem; living on the streets. However, the homeless are made up of veterans, the mentally ill, single parents, physically disabled, runaway children, drug addicts and alcoholics. The majority of this list were normal people before becoming homeless. Some were members of the working class who ran into problems and ended up on the streets they had no were else to turn. The homeless problem is more complex than most people can imagine. â€Å"The word â€Å"homeless† tells us almost nothing† ( ¶ 8). People who do not agree with the American life style sometimes end up homeless because they want to be excluded from society. Some people do surprisingly choose to be homeless. Others choose to be homeless because they can not live within a â€Å"normal† society. For example, veterans might have to turn to the streets because they couldn’t escape the trauma and couldn’t live a normal life with all of the troubles they endure day to day. There are some homeless people â€Å"†¦who no longer want help, who no longer recognize the need for help, and whose experiences in our world has made them want to be left alone† ( ¶ 21). Some of these people are content with living on the streets. They do not want a change and seem to be happy in what seems to be a very unfortunate situation. Many people are misinformed  about this kind of circumstance. Some homeless people start out with a normal life then start living on the streets because of a traumatic experience they can not escape. The story about Alice shows this vividly. She had a job as a teacher and one day she was raped. This led to a nervous breakdown and three months in a mental institution. After returning she had no job and no belongings in her apartment. â€Å"We must learn to accept that there may indeed be people, and not only vets, who have seen so much of our world, or seen it so clearly, that to live in it becomes impossible† ( ¶ 17). She eventually felt she had no where to turn except the streets. Alice was a person similar to many others in society before she was raped. This story shows how the tables can turn in life suddenly and drastically. Most people would never realize that some of the homeless people they walk by day to day is a person like Alice. Society tends to think that the homeless are without homes mostly because of themselves and not because of traumatic experiences. In the end Marin points out that as a society, we owe it to the homeless to give them a place in the world that they, too, have contributed to. Just because twists of fate or bad luck have put them where they are now, does not give us the right to deprive them of the right to live a decent life just because we fear them, think that we are better than them, or simply believe that they are not our problem.† It may not be a moral Obligation,†¦, but an obligation non of the less.†( ¶ 47).

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Assessments for Early Childhood Programs Essay

William J. Wilson once said, â€Å"The person who scored well on an SAT will not necessarily be the best doctor or the best lawyer or the best businessman. These tests do not measure character, leadership, creativity, or perseverance†. Why do we test students? What is the purpose of assessments? Do these tests and assessments benefit the students? These are questions educators have been asking for years. It is impossible for one to determine a child’s academic abilities based solely on a test. Yet there still needs to be some form of assessments performed in order to evaluate the academic level each student has reached. But how much assessing is too much? How heavily do educators rely on the results of these assessments? The main issues, when it comes to assessing early childhood students, are the consequences of the assessment results and how they affect the child. According to The National Academies of Sciences, there are two key principles that support the success of assessment. The first is that the purpose of an assessment should be a guide for assessment decisions. â€Å"The purpose for any assessment must be determined and clearly communicated to all stake- holders before the assessment is designed or implemented. Most important, assessment designed for programs should not be used to assess individual children. Because different purposes require different kinds of assessments, the purpose should drive assessment design and implementation decisions† (The National Academies of Sciences, 2008). The second principle is that any assessment performed should be completed in a â€Å"coherent system of health, educational, and family support services that promote optimal development for all children. Assessment should be an integral part of a coherent system of early childhood care and education that includes a range of services and resources† (The National Academies of Sciences, 2008). These two principles explain the main purpose of why assessing is important and how assessments should be conducted. After having an understanding of the purpose of assessments, why is it so important to begin evaluations at such a young age? What is the purpose of evaluating infants and toddlers? Author Sue Wortham explains evaluating toddlers and infants determine whether the child is developing normally or if they show any signs of delay and need assistance. All in all, the main purpose of assessment is to benefit the child (Wortham, p. 32). The NAEYC believes that during a child’s early years, evaluating and assessing their development should be the primary focus. They want to study how young children grown and learn. All the â€Å"results of assessment are used to inform the planning and implementation of experiences, to communicate with the child’s family, and to evaluate and improve teachers’ and program’s effectiveness† (Wortham, p.34). Teachers also use assessment results to in order to plan their curriculum accordingly. So exactly do assessments search for? Assessments look not only for what the child is already capable of doing independently but also what they can do with the help of a teacher or another student (Wortham, p. 35). So how are they assessed exactly? There are many different assessments given to children across the U. S. everyday. These may be administered orally or as written works, such as questionnaires, surveys, or tests. These may include: standardized tests, observations, checklists, rating scales, rubrics, interviews, or portfolios. Each of these serve a different purpose in order to give different pieces of information needed to evaluate the child in question. Standardized tests, though many disagree with them, are meant to measure individual characteristics. Observations, on the other hand, are one of the most effective ways to measure students’ characteristics. When children are young, it can be hard at times to determine if there are any developmental delays (Wortham, p. 39). Developmental checklists, or scopes, are mainly used at all levels of education. These checklists are lists of the learning objectives that have been established by the teacher in order to keep track of their learning and development. Items on a checklist are rated with a negative or positive response from the teacher. Rating scales, unlike checklists, provide measurement on a continuum and are used when a collection of criteria is needed to attain specific information. Another form of assessment teachers commonly use is Rubrics. Rubrics were created to â€Å"evaluate authentic and performance assessments† (Wortham, p. 41). Rubrics, like rating scales, have a range of criteria that must be met. However, unlike rating scales, rubrics can be used to not only determine the quality of performance required, but are also used to assign grades. Rubrics make it easy for students to understand what is expected and is makes it easier for teachers to grade assignments. The final types of assessments that are most frequently used are performance and portfolio assessments. These evaluations might be administered through interviews given directly by the teacher in order to understand the child’s thinking and understanding (Wortham, p. 41). Teachers may present these evaluations through directed assignments, activities, or games. The performance results are typically kept in a student or teacher portfolio. These portfolios contain samples of student’s work and are used as a sort of progress report card. Keeping detailed reports of student’s work in the portfolios help teachers keep track of their student’s progress and help determine which areas of learning are lacking attention (Wortham, p. 41). Overall, according to Wortham, these tests, whether administered to an individual child or a group of students, are meant to determine a student’s â€Å"abilities, achievements, aptitudes, interests, attitudes, values, and personality characteristics† (Wortham, p.39). Now having an understanding of the different types of assessments used to evaluate students and the purpose, let us turn to the negative and positive effects of these evaluations. It is crucial for educators to administer tests and evaluations carefully, because it they are poorly articulated, it can lead to decisions that are unfair or unclear, and they may do harm to programs, teachers, and, most importantly, children (Snow, C. E. & Van Hemel, S. B. , p. 341-342). Evaluations and assessments are not meant to punish a child, and therefore, should never be overseen lightly. It is important that the information gathered outweighs any negative effects. Editors of Early Childhood Assessment: Why, What, and How, Catherine E. Snow and Susan B. Van Hemel, explain that â€Å"although the same measure may be used for more than one purpose, prior consideration of all potential purposes is essential, as is careful analysis of the actual content of the assessment instrument. Direct examination of the assessment items is important because the title of a measure does not always reflect the content† (Snow, C. E. & Van Hemel, S. B. , p. 346). So what are some negative effects? Negative consequences of assessment findings may include program de-funding, closing a center, firing a teacher, mislabeling a child, or a reduction in program resources (The National Academies of Sciences, 2008). These effects, such as mislabeling a student, can follow students for the rest of their education career. Once a child is entered into a program, it can be difficult at time for teachers to look past that label. Children all develop at different his or her own pace. No one child will develop and learn the same way as another child. They all grow up and develop at different stages. Yet educational theorists have been able to observed and gather enough information to conclude that children, if divided in age groups, do tend to follow a certain development pattern. The problem is, it is hard to determine which children are the outliers in these results without carefully administering proper assessments. Assessments are not used to necessarily judge student or punish them. Their main purpose is to help students, teachers, and parents. So what are some positive effects of assessment and evaluations? Students that benefit from assessments and evaluations are those that are properly observed and tested. Teachers also benefit from the use of assessments because it helps them create an appropriate curriculum for their students. Evaluating children at a young age can have a positive effect if a delay or disability is in fact found, and because it was caught early, the student has a better chance of exceeding their potential in school. Catching developmental delays or disabilities at a young age is the same as finding cancer at an early stage in the sense that the earlier the cancer is found; the chances of survival are greater. Assessment results are used to plan for instruction, evaluate instructional programs, and report student progress. These are all positive results of assessments. Without the results of assessments and test, how can educators determine what to teach their students? Evaluations, if planned and administered properly, can be more beneficial than harmful. Unfortunately, not all teachers evaluate children fairly or appropriately. So it is important for parents to stay involved in their children’s education in the event that the results of an evaluation do not match the potential of their child. Parents should know the norms and abnormalities of their child’s behavior. Therefore, it is always beneficial to the child for parents and teachers to communicate. This way if a child is acting up in class, and the teacher notifies the parent, the parent may confirm any fears right away by simply saying, â€Å"that isn’t like him† or â€Å"he’s just nervous†. Avoiding drastic measures and not jumping to conclusions is the proper way to evaluate a child fairly. What are the predicted long-term benefits to Early Childhood Assessments? Are assessments and student evaluations accurate? Should teachers be required to assess and evaluate students as much as they already do? These are just a few of the questions that plagued educators for years. Too much assessing has placed so much pressure on students and teachers, inevitably taking away a child’s desire to learn for the sake of learning. The purpose of assessments and evaluations is a great concept, but placing too much pressure and emphasis on the test results is tainting the original purpose of learning. References Bers, T. H. & Mittler, M. L. (1994). New Directions for Community Colleges. Assessment & Testing Myths and Realities: A Critical Review of Student Assessment Options, 69-83. Brink, M. (2002). Involving Parents in Early Childhood Assessment: Perspectives from an Early Intervention Instructor. Early Childhood Education Journal, 29(4), 251-7. Retrieved from Education Full Text database Early, D. M. , McKenna, M. , & Slentz, K. L. (2008). A Guide to Assessment in Early Childhood; Infancy to Age Eight. Washington State: Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. The National Academies of Sciences (2008). Early Childhood Assessment: Why, What, And How. Retrieved October 19, 2011 from http://www. bocyf. org/head_start_brief. pdf. Early Learning Standards Task Force and Kindergarten Assessment Work Group. (2005). Early Childhood Assessment For Children From Birth To Age 8 (Grade 3). Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania’s Departments of Education and Public Welfare. Snow, C. E. & Van Hemel, S. B. (2008). Early Childhood Assessment: Why, What, And How. Washington, D. C. : The National Research Council Of The National Academies Wortham, S. (2012). Assessment in Early Childhood Education, (6th ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.