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Approved Early Childhood Assessment Tools for Colorado

Assessment Menu

Colorado has a menu of high quality early childhood assessment tools for preschool progress monitoring and school readiness in Kindergarten.

  • Preschool programs receiving public funds for children who have an Individual Education Program (IEP) use either GOLD® by Teaching Strategies, COR Advantage by HighScope, or AEPS® (Assessment, Evaluation, and Programming System for Infants and Children), Second Edition through the Results Matter System.
  • Kindergarten may choose an assessment tool(s) from the State Board of Education Approved List of Assessments.

These assessment tools all function in similar ways. They measure the required areas of development and growth defined in legislation: early literacy, mathematics, social, physical, language, and cognitive development. Results are measured against research-based age expectations.

Some of the assessment tools have additional optional areas that can be measured at teacher discretion. These optional areas include science, technology, arts, and English language development, among others. They are teacher-guided observation protocols used to see how well a child is progressing through age- and grade-level expectations to support later academic success. They are valid, reliable and research-based instruments that meet the school readiness criteria established by the State Board of Education.