Young Children Volume 81 • No 2 Toward Intentional Teaching: The Need for Educator Agency

(Re)claiming Assessment as an Advocacy Tool in the Primary Grades

By Sehyun Yun and Leslie La Croix

I teach with my whole heart, and I want my kids to feel successful. But some of the ways I’m expected to assess them just don’t feel fair. They’re frustrated. I’m frustrated. I’m falling behind if they can’t keep up with the plan because there’s another piece of paper we’ve got to sit down and do. This is not how it’s supposed to be.
—Ms. Taylor, first-grade teacher

For many primary-grade teachers, assessments have become top-down mandates, imposed by a school district or state. Required, formal assessments are often tightly bound to academic standards and, to ensure fidelity, come with scripted protocols and strict administrative timelines. Because of intensified pressure on teachers to improve students’ performance and prepare them for standardized tests (Stanford 2023), educators and children are now navigating a significant increase in the number of formal assessments they experience yearly (Bassok et al. 2016). At the same time, teachers are tasked with assessing children informally to gauge their skills and interests and to inform curricular planning (Scott-Little & Reschke 2022). Yet they may struggle to integrate meaningful and manageable assessment practices within their busy learning days (e.g., Petronglo 2022).

When assessment is viewed as something separate from instruction—something that happens after teaching rather than during—it can feel disconnected or even burdensome. Additionally, assessment practices that are unresponsive to children’s cultures, languages, abilities, and prior experiences prevent children from fully demonstrating their knowledge and skills (Jones et al. 2023; NAEYC 2025). However, when teachers view assessment as part of their everyday decision making and have the agency to make sure that it is developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate, it becomes a meaningful and ongoing process that supports equitable teaching and learning (Kidd et al. 2019; NAEYC 2019; Becker et al. 2023).

As teacher educators, we (the authors) work alongside early childhood practitioners who are pursuing graduate-level coursework focused on promoting culturally, linguistically, and developmentally responsive assessment practices. In our courses, we are particularly interested in developing educators’ agency to advocate for all children, including those who are often marginalized in assessment and instructional practices. These include children who are neurodivergent, multilingual, or who qualify for early childhood special education services.

In this article, we offer insights for early childhood educators who are navigating assessment systems that often feel misaligned with developmentally appropriate practices. The voices we share come directly from the teachers we worked with as part of the first author’s research study, in which they talked about their thinking and approaches to assessment. We share their insights to highlight examples of how primary-grade educators can use agency to reclaim formal and informal assessments as tools for illuminating children’s individual strengths.

(Re)Framing Assessment as a Tool for Intentional Teaching

Assessment is the systematic process educators use to make informed decisions about children’s development and learning. This includes observation and documentation to gather, analyze, and monitor students’ progress toward learning goals and to adjust and improve teaching practices (NAEYC 2020; Scott-Little & Reschke 2022). Educators use both formal and informal assessments to document students’ growth and to support their physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development in meaningful ways (NAEYC 2025). Formal assessments provide standardized benchmarks that measure what a child has learned. These include standardized tests, screenings, and diagnostic evaluations. Informal assessments most directly inform daily instructional decisions. These include children’s work samples and educators’ observations and anecdotal notes (NAEYC 2020).

Assessment is a professional responsibility and an essential part of the work teachers do to engage with young children (Xu & Brown 2016; Scott-Little & Reschke 2022; Becker et al. 2023). It should be intentional, having a clear purpose related to a child’s growth and learning (Schmidtke 2025). This means that assessment is not about compliance or simply collecting data. Rather, it is about pausing to ask, “What am I learning about this child?” and “How can I use this information to support their growth?”

Children should have opportunities to demonstrate their understanding in ways that reflect their cultural backgrounds, languages, and lived experiences (NAEYC 2019, 2020; Nortvedt et al. 2020; Taylor 2022). Rather than relying on a single assessment moment, educators must collect multiple data points over time to capture the complexity and nonlinear nature of young children’s learning (DeLuca & Hughes 2014; Kidd et al. 2019). They also must guard against assessment bias, which occurs when a tool’s design or content unintentionally favors certain groups of students because of differences in background knowledge or comfort with a task (Taylor 2022; Jones et al. 2023). For example,

If an assessment includes unfamiliar contexts, children may struggle to understand a question or story, even if they have the skills needed to answer it correctly (Taylor 2022).
Language complexity can create barriers, especially for young children or multilingual learners.
An assessment’s format can also lead to bias. For example, children who are still developing writing skills may be unfairly disadvantaged by tasks that require lengthy written responses, even though they can explain their thinking clearly through speaking (Taylor 2022).

If educators identify biased content, language, or formats, they should be able to use their professional judgment to introduce adaptations so that the assessment is fair, meaningful, and accurately reflective of what all children know and can do (see “More About Assessment Bias” below for further discussion on this topic). In this way, assessment becomes a tool that yields rich, meaningful insights that both improve educators’ practices and guide their instructional decisions and planning for each and every child (NAEYC 2020; Yun et al. 2025).

More About Assessment Bias

Assessment bias is not limited to a particular tool or approach. It also occurs when educators hold attitudes, expectations, or assumptions about children’s families, communities, and/or social identities, such as race, culture, language, or abilities (Jones et al. 2023). These beliefs about abilities, behaviors, and backgrounds can be either implicit or explicit. Either way, they can significantly influence how educators interpret and evaluate students’ work (Copur-Gencturk et al. 2020; Denessen et al. 2022). For example, an educator might unconsciously set lower expectations for multilingual learners or children from communities that are racially or economically marginalized. This may affect both the assessment criteria they apply and the feedback they provide.

Recognizing and addressing assessment bias are critical expressions of teacher agency that require both awareness and action. Because teachers’ beliefs are deeply embedded in classroom practices, ongoing self-reflection and professional learning are essential. Educators must critically examine their expectations, how they interpret student responses, and the assessment tools they select. In doing so, they can begin to ensure that assessments are fair, valid, and truly reflective of what children know and can do (Siegel 2014; Wiese & Nortvedt 2023).

Integrating Assessment Throughout the Day: One Teacher’s Experience

When teachers treat assessment as an ongoing part of instruction—something that happens with students, not to them—it becomes a powerful act that deepens children’s learning, helps them understand their own progress, and guides them in setting their own learning goals (Black & Wiliam 1998; Earl 2012; Kidd et al. 2019; NAEYC 2020; Scott-Little & Reschke 2022). Consider the experience of one of the educators in our program:

Carmen, a first-grade teacher, watches as Ava sits quietly during math instruction. All around her, children are using linking cubes to complete an addition activity, but Ava looks confused and does not participate. To determine why, Carmen decides to use two observational tools: A frequency tracker allows her to record how often she observes Ava’s behavior, and event sampling helps her identify the causes, triggers, and consequences of Ava’s behavior. Carmen uses these tools multiple times over two weeks at different times during the day. When she examines her collected data, she notices that Ava becomes more withdrawn when confronted with multistep directions.

“That was an ‘aha’ moment for me,” Carmen says during a professional development meeting. “I started breaking tasks into smaller chunks and checking in more often, which gave Ava clarity and support. Just that little change helped her feel empowered in her learning and made her feel confident in completing the work on her own.”

Carmen’s experience illustrates a shift in how she viewed assessment—not as an isolated event, but as an ongoing, reflective process embedded within her teaching to help understand and respond to a child. Instead of collecting data strictly for compliance purposes, she integrated different assessment tools to gather specific information to inform her next instructional steps, which is part of developmentally appropriate practice (NAEYC 2020, 2022). Carmen was able to support Ava’s growth and learning by identifying and removing specific barriers to her engagement, thereby tailoring instruction to meet her needs.

Understanding Educator Agency in Assessment

Educators’ agency is reflected in the everyday choices they are able to make to support children’s learning (Cong-Lem 2021; Leighton et al. 2024). This could include

Modifying a task to meet a child’s individual strengths and areas for growth
Using student work to guide instruction
Implementing a new assessment tool or process to respond to individual students’ progress
Expanding the types of assessments they use

Research shows that educator agency is not an inherent quality but something that develops through supportive contexts, professional learning, and reflective practices (Chisholm et al. 2019; Cong-Lem 2021). It grows when educators are empowered to make informed decisions based on what they know about their students, their curricula’s instructional goals, and the research literature.

As growing standardization and accountability demands limit teachers’ professional autonomy, educator agency becomes increasingly important (Chisholm et al. 2019). This is particularly true of assessment, where teachers must navigate external mandates while also responding to children’s individual strengths and needs and committing to equitable teaching practices (Brown & Weber 2016). Following is an example of how an educator exercised her agency to question existing assessment practices.

Brittany is a first-year educator who teaches 25 second graders. She is concerned about her school district’s unit tests for that grade level because they require children to have mastered multiple, complex math skills simultaneously within a single assessment.

“I feel like I’m my students’ advocate,” Brittany shares during a team meeting. She suggests finding ways to improve this assessment by identifying any modifications teachers can make. She and her colleagues examine the district’s assessment guidelines and discover that they have more flexibility than they originally thought. For example, they can break unit tests into smaller, more manageable sections. This is important because it reduces testing fatigue for 7-year-olds and provides a clear picture of what children know before they move on to a new topic. The district’s guidelines also stipulate that teachers can offer their students supports, such as counting cubes or number lines to help them succeed.

Brittany’s advocacy sparks collaborative change that encourages her team to rethink their materials and practices and to adopt more inclusive and responsive assessment strategies.

In contexts where educators are required to use mandated assessments, it is important to recognize that guidelines may allow for more flexibility than initially assumed. Teachers should review assessment policies closely and collaborate with colleagues to identify areas they can adjust. Engaging in reflective dialogue provides them with opportunities to explore alternative perspectives, methods, and materials. It also allows them to present their own perceptions, experiences, and evidence and to work toward shared understanding (Xu & Brown 2016). Besides improving assessment practices, these collaborative conversations help educators develop a stronger sense of agency.

Using Agency to Advance Equity

As discussed, assessment must do more than measure progress. It also must support educators to understand each child’s interests, cultural backgrounds, and developmental pathways (Hanno et al. 2025). This is particularly true in early childhood special education settings, where educators continually balance individualized instruction, documentation, and Individual Education Program (IEP) goals. By using informal tools such as interest inventories, observational notes, and play-based assessments, teachers are able to center children in their assessment process and decision making. This allows them to create more meaningful, relevant learning experiences grounded in students’ strengths.

Iris is a preschool special education teacher who works with 12 children between the ages of 2 and 5. To informally assess children’s learning, she begins each day by observing their play. “I bring my assessment binder to them,” she shares with colleagues. “Rather than interrupting their play, I join them in their chosen activity, extend their play, ask questions, and collect data on the spot.”

This approach allows Iris to capture knowledge and skills in real time and in authentic situations as she extends play and asks questions. By leveraging children’s motivation during their preferred activities, she can introduce learning goals and intentionally track the progress they are making.

For example, when Minh shows an interest in train tracks, Iris introduces activities that allow her to assess the receptive and expressive language goals articulated in his IEP. During a 15-minute session using Minh’s preferred play sets, Iris asks him to identify objects like the train tracks or to imitate environmental noises like “choo.” She documents Minh’s nonverbal imitation, such as his ability to roll a car or open a gate. She also provides verbal prompts to evaluate his understanding of prepositions (“Can you drive the train over/under/in the bridge?”), recording whether Minh completes the tasks independently or requires a gesture or verbal prompt. She collects constantly and without interrupting Minh’s engagement during this time.

Iris’s experience illustrates how educators can forefront observation, child choice, and responsiveness to align with individualized learning goals. By embracing children’s interests and assets, teachers can intentionally plan and carry out assessments that inform instructional decisions to benefit each learner.

(Re)claiming Assessments as Advocacy Tools for Learners

By exercising their agency and advocating for equitable assessment practices, educators (re)claim assessment as a tool for inquiry, empowerment, and instructional insight. This is an ongoing, reflective, and knowledge-seeking process (Xu & Brown 2016; Cui et al. 2025). To begin, we suggest reflecting on the following practices:

Start with the child. Educators can engage with families to gain insights about children’s strengths and to plan assessment materials that connect to their lived experiences. Interest surveys, family interviews, and observations are helpful ways to learn about each child’s preferences and backgrounds and to build assessment opportunities around these preferred materials and activities.
Embrace an assessment = advocacy mindset. Educators can document at least one strength for each child weekly, then use those insights to guide instruction. They also can honor children’s home languages and communication styles by allowing different modes of communication and offering multilingual supports.
Embed assessment into daily routines. By keeping documentation tools (clipboards, tablets, sticky notes) accessible, educators can take quick anecdotal notes or photos to capture learning during playtime, centers, and other activities.
Keep assessment goals clear, and watch for unintended bias. Educators must make sure that they are assessing a specific skill, not unrelated abilities like following complex instructions. Are teachers’ expectations influencing their interpretations of children’s responses?
Reflect and refine assessment tools regularly. Educators can examine one assessment tool each month and identify one modification that could make it more accessible or authentic for all learners.
Review mandated assessments. Educators can examine district guidelines to identify acceptable ways to modify formal assessments. They can then collaborate with colleagues to implement accommodations that support diverse learners while maintaining assessment integrity.

About the Authors

Sehyun Yun, PhD, is an assistant professor of curriculum and instruction at Ball State University. Her research centers on the literacy and language development of children from diverse cultural, linguistic, and socio-economic backgrounds. Her work also aims to enhance teacher education programs by preparing preservice teachers to develop expertise in fair and equitable assessment practices. sehyun.yun@bsu.edu

Leslie La Croix, PhD, is an assistant professor of inclusive early childhood education in the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University. Dr. La Croix’s research emphasizes leveraging asset-based pedagogies and assessment practices with diverse young learners. llacroix@gmu.edu

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Young Children Volume 81 • No 2 Toward Intentional Teaching: The Need for Educator Agency | Inspiring Teacher Agency