Teaching Strategies GOLD™ is an authentic observational assessment system for children from birth through kindergarten. It is designed to help you get to know what students know and can do and their strengths, needs and interests. With this information, you can guide children’s learning by planning engaging experiences that are responsive to individual and group needs.
The Teaching Strategies GOLD™ assessment system blends ongoing, authentic, observational assessment for all areas of development and learning with intentional, focused, performance-assessment tasks for selected predictors of school success in the areas of literacy and numeracy. This seamless system is designed for use as part of meaningful everyday experiences in the classroom or program setting. It is inclusive of children with disabilities, children who are English-language or dual language learners, and children who demonstrate competencies beyond typical developmental expectations.
Teaching Strategies GOLD™ recognizes that the development of young children is uneven, that it changes rapidly and that development and learning are interrelated and overlapping. The assessment system may be used with any developmentally appropriate curriculum; it is not linked exclusively to a particular curriculum.
The primary purposes of the Teaching Strategies GOLD™ assessment system are to help teachers:
- observe and document children’s development and learning over time
- support, guide and inform planning and instruction
- identify children who might benefit from special help, screening or further evaluation
- report and communicate with family members and others
The secondary purposes are to help teachers:
- collect and gather child outcome information as one part of a larger accountability system
- provide reports to administrators to guide program planning and professional development opportunities