YOUNG EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN Vol. 12, No.

3, June 2009 2
YEC
PHOTO
DOI: 10.1177/1096250609332304
http://yec.sagepub.com
2009 Division for Early Childhood
Patsy L. Pierce, PhD
The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Gail Summer, EdD
Ferrum College
Mark OdeKirk, PhD
Meredith College
The Bridge: An Authentic
Literacy Assessment Strategy for
Individualizing and Informing Practice
With Young Children With Disabilities
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you
see? chant the 3- and 4-year-olds
gathered for the emergent reading
story time. It is Wednesday and the
book has been read at least once
each day this week. Today, the
children confidently joined in on the
repetitive phrase. Mary, a 4-year-old
with autism, did not verbally
participate when the other children
chimed in, even when cued by the
teachers pause and inviting gaze.
Mary instead bobbed her head in
time with the repetitive phrase, a
response captured by Helen, a
classroom assistant. Helen has sticky
labels for notes and pen in hand to
observe and record emergent literacy
advances of all the children.
Later that day, during the childrens
rest time, Helen and Roberta reviewed
the days notes and events to better
shape their plans for the next day.
Helen asked Roberta, the classroom
teacher, Did you see Mary as you read
today? Mary was bobbing her head in
rhythm with the repetitive line from
Brown Bear, Brown Bear! I was not
sure at first she really was doing it, but
I watched each time the line was
chanted by the children, and she really
was bobbing in rhythm.
That would be a nice step
forward in her phonological
awareness, said Roberta. Helen,
tomorrow sit with Mary and when we
read Brown Bear again, gently take
her hands in yours and pat them on
her legs in rhythm with the repeated
line. Lets try that the next several
times we read the book and see what
happens. Also, pay attention during
circle time when we greet the children
by clapping the syllables in their
names. See if Mary is bobbing with
the syllables as the other children
clap. Maybe shes been showing us in
her way that she hears the rhythms in
language. Lets get her literacy
portfolio and make sure we document
this! Roberta retrieved Marys literacy
portfolio, turned to the section on
phonological-phonemic awareness
and placed Helens note in the file:
Mary bobbed her head in rhythm
each time that the repetitive phrase
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you
see? was read during circle time,
3/23/07.
You know, Helen, according to the
Bridge Rating Scale, the next skill Mary
should exhibit will be naming or
identifying sounds in the environment.
Roberta thought about Marys limited
language and realized she will
probably not be naming sounds very
soon. Roberta suggested to Helen,
Lets make a very small, four-picture
sound lotto game using her picture
board and get Joey to play with her
tomorrow. Ive noticed Joey playing
side by side with Mary at the sand
table. Maybe, with our support, they
would play an abbreviated listening
game together. Roberta added,
Marys mom will be so pleased to hear
about what you saw today. Make sure
we pass on some suggestions for using
repeated lines and listening games for
home too, since Mary might be ready
for plenty of sound and rhythm play.
Maybe we could make a sound
lotto board for Mary to use with home
sounds too, suggested Helen.
Vol. 12, No. 3, June 2009 YOUNG EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN
The Bridge / Pierce
3
Tracking the emergent
literacy growth of
developmentally young
children is essential to
planning appropriate
programs that challenge
children and move them
ever forward in
their literacy and
language development.

Early literacy development,

assessment, and teaching have been
significant foci of research and
practice in this, the 21st, century.
Multiple new early literacy curricula
and assessments for preschoolers
have been created since 2001.
Tracking the emergent literacy
growth of developmentally young
children is essential to planning
appropriate programs that challenge
children and move them ever
forward in their literacy and
language development. In this
article, we will discuss the
development and use of a
framework to guide assessment,
planning, and conferencing with
families in regard to a childs
literacy development, The Bridge: A
Portfolio Rating Scale of Preschool
Literacy Development (Pierce,
Summer, & OdeKirk, 2005). This
tool was created specifically to
inform literacy-related classroom-
and home-based practices with
children with and without
disabilities functioning in the birth-
to-5 developmental range. It is
based on sequences in literacy
development and extends to
behaviors generally exhibited by
very young children to allow
teachers such as Roberta and Helen
to capture childrens functional
indicators of literacy awareness and
progress.
Building the Bridge
We will refer to The Bridge: A
Portfolio Rating Scale of Preschool
Literacy Development as simply the
Bridge throughout the remainder of
this article. The Bridge was built by
practicing preschool teachers, like
Helen and Roberta, who work with
children with and without
disabilities ages 3 to 5 years.
Because of significant
communicative, physical, and/or
sensory disabilities some of the
children experienced, their cognitive
functioning level was difficult to
assess. The teachers, therefore,
wanted a way to document a full
range of early literacy abilities that
might be seen in children such as
Mary, the child in the vignette.
The Bridge builders wanted an
assessment tool that would better
inform their day-to-day practices to
facilitate literacy development with
children with a broad range of
abilities. They also wanted a valid
way to document the growth of
early literacy abilities in all of their
children. The preschool teachers did
not want to be tied to any one
early literacy curriculum and the
curriculum-based assessment that
accompanied it, because they did
not feel that any one curriculum met
the diverse needs of their students.
The curriculum-based and criterion-
referenced assessments that they
were using did not offer enough
literacy-specific information,
especially at very beginning levels,
for the teachers to document
progress in literacy learning for all
the children with whom they
worked.
The preschool teachers who
developed the Bridge also strongly
believed in the use of authentic,
observation-based assessment
approaches. They did not want to
use standardized assessments of
early language and literacy abilities
solely, again because of the broad
range of abilities of the children in
their classrooms. They felt that
The Bridge / Pierce
YOUNG EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN Vol. 12, No. 3, June 2009 4
when standardized tests were used
alone, they often failed to tap skills
that children actually did have in
their repertoire. Using only
standardized assessments of early
language and literacy seemed to
limit the teachers abilities to
interact with young children
meaningfully and effectively for the
purpose of developing their literacy-
related skills and understandings
(Daniels, 1999).
The teachers also did not feel
that standardized assessments would
reflect the childrens progress or
inform their daily practices as much
as needed. To the Bridge builders,
authentic assessment meant an
approach that would provide
information about what children
can do in settings where they are
most comfortable (Boyd-Batstone,
2004; Daniels, 1999; Neisworth &
Bagnato, 2004) and as a way to
capture real-life competencies in
everyday settings and document
even small improvements in
developmental skills (Bagnato,
2005, p. 18).
The Bridge, therefore, was
built or based on the Division for
Early Childhood (DEC)
Recommended Practices (Sandall,
Hemmeter, Smith, & McLean,
2005). Recommendations for
assessment include involving
parents as partners and focusing on
the developmental appropriateness
of expectations. When using the
Bridge, work samples and
descriptions of childrens interaction
with literacy-related materials and
during literacy-related activities are
documented over time and then
rated using the scale. Families help
to inform the rating by sharing their
observations of their childrens
interests and engagement in literacy-
related experiences. Each childs
level of interaction given necessary
physical and/or assistive technology
supports is documented and rated
and used to guide literacy teaching
at home and in classrooms on the
basis of the childrens interests and
abilities, informed by families and
teachers using the Bridge.
The Bridge is adapted from the
Teacher Rating of Language and
Literacy (TROLL; Dickinson,
McCabe, & Sprague, 2001),
expanded with research-based early
language and literacy behaviors
expected to be seen in children up
to 5 years of age. The name, the
Bridge, reflects the tools span
across the birth-to-5 range and that
it was built over the TROLL.
During the 2003-2004 and 2004-
2005 academic years, 10 teachers
collected literacy-related
observation notes, work samples,
and other documents to compile
the evidence required to complete
the Bridge rating for each of the
children in their classes in the fall
and spring of each school year.
External raters also reviewed the
evidence collected for each child
and used it to complete the Bridge
rating. By the spring of 2006, the
teachers and the external raters had
achieved at least 80% interrater
reliability (exact agreement on
80% of the items) for more than
95% of the children. This level of
interrater reliability led us to feel
comfortable in sharing the Bridge
with other preschool teachers as a
useful way of observing and
facilitating literacy learning with
children who are functioning
developmentally like children from
birth to 5 years.
The Bridge is an
observation-based
assessment tool that can
be used to determine
ongoing progress
and childrens interests
as well as to inform
daily practice related
to early language and
literacy development.

Vol. 12, No. 3, June 2009 YOUNG EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN

The Bridge / Pierce
5
The Bridge: Description
and Use
The Bridge is an observation-
based assessment tool that can be
used to determine ongoing progress
and childrens interests as well as to
inform daily practice related to early
language and literacy development.
Neisworth and Bagnato (2004)
suggest that it is particularly
important that we use approaches
such as the Bridge for assessment of
young children, because tools such
as this authentically sample
childrens abilities in deeply
contextualized environments and
activities, especially when we work
with young children with and at risk
for disabilities. As previously
mentioned, the Bridge expands the
TROLLs 4-point Likert-type rating
scale to a 6-point scale so that the
early literacy skills of children who
are still in the exploratory phases of
literacy development (e.g., chewing
on a book or a crayon) can be
captured. The items on the Bridge
were adapted from the early
learning standards from several
states and the National Head Start
Outcomes with added items that
reflect the early literacy behaviors of
children ages birth to 5 years. The
Bridge is divided into five major
areas: Foundations of Reading,
Foundations of Writing, Alphabet
Knowledge, Phonological
Awareness, and Literacy-Related
Language. When using the Bridge,
all pieces of evidence gathered from
home and classroom interactions are
dated and filed under each major
area in a childs individual portfolio.
Early literacy behaviors are
indicated on the left end of each
scale, numbered 1, 2, and 3, and
later developing literacy behaviors
are rated 4, 5, and 6, moving
toward the right end of the scale for
each item. The Bridge rating scale is
included in Figure 1. A Guide to
Using the Bridge (Carpenter et al.,
2005), which offers actual notes and
photos used to score the Bridge and
suggestions for helping children to
achieve each level of rating, is
available at
http://www.med.unc.edu/ahs/clds
under Projects, Early Reading
First.
For an example of using the
Bridge, let us refer to the opening
vignette when Roberta and Helen
made note of Marys rhythmic
movements during morning circle.
Roberta and Helen knew these
behaviors might be indicative of
early literacy because they were
using the Bridge, specifically, Item 8:
Phonological Awareness: How
Does the Child Demonstrate
Phonological Awareness? They
read the descriptions of each stage
of phonological development from
the Guide to Using the Bridge
(Carpenter et al., 2005) and found
the description that best matched
Marys behaviors. They began to
observe whether she used these
behaviors consistently, look for the
skills they might expect to develop
next, and anticipate ways they
might support this development, as
described in the vignette. Notes and
pictures that illustrate
documentation of childrens
progress as guided by Bridge Item 8
are illustrated here in Table 1. Note
that Table 1 illustrates several
examples of data recorded to
document a childs specific skills.
Generally, documentation would be
(text continues on page 10)
The Bridge / Pierce
YOUNG EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN Vol. 12, No. 3, June 2009 6
Figure 1
The Bridge (Experimental Version)
Foundations of Reading (Book Knowledge/Appreciation/Print Awareness/Story Comprehension)
1. How does ___________ handle/interact with books?
Explores Browses Holds the book Independent study Turns pages Recognizes
books book pages appropriately of book pages appropriately book by its cover
1 2 3 4 5 6
2. How does ___________ interact with symbols/print?
Communicates a
choice of story,
song, or rhyme Frequently Makes print- Knows where Understands
using a picture, Beginning to recognizes to-speech to read on a concept of
symbol, or object recognize print print connection page word
1 2 3 4 5 6
3. How does ___________ engage in the act of reading?
Points, labels,
comments, acts Reading from
Indicates awareness Displays joint out story memory but paying
that someone is attention while characteristics Parallel/Solitary Reading to attention to the
reading to him/her being read to during joint reading reading another printed word
1 2 3 4 5 6
Foundations of Writing
4. How does ___________ draw/write? (Motor item)
Uses discounnected
Uses writing/ Explores writing/ Writes begins to Writes looks scribble with letter-
drawing tools with drawing with look different more like forms and some
Exploration beginning purpose greater purpose from drawing writing-like recognizable letters
1 2 3 4 5 6
5. How does ___________ use print? (Cognitive/linguistic item)
Uses many
Uses many written words
Uses mainly letter-like forms (developmental
Uses scribbles scribbles to in scribble to and conventional
Uses [/] drawings and/or drawings write a letter, tell a story, spelling) to tell a
Uses symbols to communicate to make signs, create a message, create a message, story, create a
to communicate meaning labels, lists make a list make a list message, make a list
1 2 3 4 5 6
6. How does ___________ write his/her name? (Motor and cognitive item)
Makes an Writes some
inconsistent Makes a consistent Makes letter-like letters to form Writes name in Writes first and
mark/scribble to mark/scribble to forms in scribble name (not neces- recognizable last names
represent name write name to write name sarily in order) form and/or other names
1 2 3 4 5 6
(continued)
Vol. 12, No. 3, June 2009 YOUNG EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN
The Bridge / Pierce
7
Figure 1
(continued)
Alphabet Knowledge
7. How does ___________ interact with/use letters of the alphabet?
Recognizes first Recognizes other
Explores and plays Knows that letters letter in his/her letters in own Identifies specific Identifies at
with alphabet are different from name (says, and/or others letters in own least 10
materials pictures and shapes writes, points to) names or others names letters
1 2 3 4 5 6
Phonological/Phonemic Awareness
8. How does ___________ demonstrate phonological awareness?
Participates in familiar
sound and word Identifies some
play, songs, finger Repeats Awareness that initial letter sounds
plays through Follows rhythmic Identifies/names rhythmic patterns different words begin and/or makes
visual cues and beat of language sounds in the in poems and with the same some letter-
imitation and music environment songs sound sound matches
1 2 3 4 5 6
9. How does ___________ demonstrate phonemic awareness?
Plays with sounds
of language by
Recognizes sounds Plays with sounds substituting initial Can segment and
of language by of language by sounds and/or Can segment a Can segment and blend onset
completing familiar identifying and/or creating alliterative sentence into blend syllables rime (b-ug = bug;
rhymes creating rhymes pairs words (hap-py) r-ug = rug)
1 2 3 4 5 6
Oral Language (Related to Literacy Activities)
10. How does ___________ interact during literacy-related activities?
Vocalizes during Looks at or points Makes comments, Asks/answers Retells a simple
literacy to pictures, symbols, Labels pictures, relates stories to questions story with
activities props actions personal experiences about the story activity in sequence
1 2 3 4 5 6
11. How does ___________ engage in storytelling?
Imitates actions, Spontaneously uses Uses storybook Answers Predicts what
sound effects, actions, sounds, language from questions might happen
words from words from familiar related to in unfamiliar Tells an original,
stories familiar stories stories familiar stories stories simple story
1 2 3 4 5 6
SOURCE: This table was adapted from the TROLL 2001 Education Development Center, Inc. The adaptation was developed with permission of
EDC and is provided under a license to the publisher.
NOTE: All items (including writing and phonological awareness) include childrens use of assistive technology (e.g., adapted books, books on disk,
books on tape, communication symbols, devices).
The Bridge / Pierce
YOUNG EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN Vol. 12, No. 3, June 2009 8
Table 1
Item 8: Phonological Awareness
Item Description
8.1 The child participates in
familiar sound and word
play, songs, and finger plays
through visual cues and imi-
tation. The child will follow
along by watching others.
8.2 The child attends to and
follows the rhythmic beat of
language and song. The
child will sway to music or
rhyme or may sway, bounce,
or clap along with the song.
This can occur when the
child feels vibrations.
8.3 The child identifies/names
sounds in the environment,
for example, by saying A
doggie goes woof, or point-
ing to or looking at the door
when he or she hears a
doorbell.
Example Artifacts (Observation Notes,
Pictures, Work Samples)
(continued)
Vol. 12, No. 3, June 2009 YOUNG EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN
The Bridge / Pierce
9
SOURCE: Adapted from A Guide to Using the Bridge (Carpenter et al., 2005).
Table 1 (continued)
Item Description
8.4 The child repeats rhythmic
patterns in poems and
songs. The child repeats the
cadence from the words and
songs. During group time,
the child can repeat poems
and songs. During free
times, he or she sings songs
or makes rhythms on his or
her own. You might want to
ask parents if they are hear-
ing these things at home.
8.5 The child tells you words
that have the same begin-
ning sound. He or she does
not have to label the initial
sound. (Note on how to cre-
ate opportunity for this
item: Toss a beanbag
around during circle time.
Ask the children to give a
word that starts like /b/,
banana. Note who are able
to give a word such as ball
when it is their turn to catch
the beanbag.)
8.6 The child will identify the
letter name and sound. For
example, if asked, What
does the word banana start
with? the child could
answer, B, like boy. The
child must name the letter.
Example Artifacts (Observation Notes,
Pictures, Work Samples)
The Bridge / Pierce
YOUNG EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN Vol. 12, No. 3, June 2009 10
filed in an individual childs
portfolio, but recordings from
multiple children are used here to
provide examples for rating a
variety of observations.
For another example of using the
Bridge to document and inform
practice, consider the child who has
just begun to explore books by
placing them in his or her mouth.
Teachers would refer to Bridge Item
1, Foundations of Reading: How
Does the Child Interact With
Books? Examples to illustrate
scoring of documents or notes are
provided for each level of Bridge
Item 1. In the first example, a child
whose documented behaviors during
several weeks reflect these
interactions, as described by the
Bridge and the Guide to Using the
Bridge, would receive the
appropriate rating of 1.1 to 1.2.
1. How does the child
interact with books?
1.1. The child is beginning
to explore books by mouthing
them, patting them, carrying
them around. Children may
accidentally tear or crumple
pages as they explore them
from a sensory-motor stage of
development.
1.2. The child is beginning to
recognize that a book has
different properties from other
toys. He or she may fan the
pages, flip them, and look at
the pages in no particular
order. The child will interact
with books and pages in the
middle, beginning, and/or end.
After observing for several weeks
that a child seems to be stuck in
the 1.2 stage of flipping through
books, teachers and families would
understand that child needs to
develop into a more engaged phase,
participating in activities such as
those reflected by ratings of 1.3, 1.4,
or 1.5, which are illustrated below.
1.5. The child turns each
individual page one at a time,
in order. If the child has motor
challenges, it is appropriate to
Teachers are taught
to look for and document
childrens skills and
behaviors via anecdotal
notes, photographs, and
work samples, according
to the early literacy
behaviors included on the
Bridge rating scale.

Vol. 12, No. 3, June 2009 YOUNG EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN

The Bridge / Pierce
11
offer modified books to help,
e.g., page fluffers, tabs, books
in binders. Books should be
chosen/modified to reflect a
childs topical and/sensory
interests on each page, e.g.,
shiny, reflective materials glued
to each page.
Note that the child in the photo
used to illustrate documentation for
this item is totally engaged and very
carefully turning each page and
examining the pages very closely.
Teachers are taught to look for
and document childrens skills and
behaviors via anecdotal notes,
photographs, and work samples,
according to the early literacy
behaviors included on the Bridge
rating scale. As the ratings of each
of the literacy behaviors are
arranged developmentally from left
to right on the items scale, the
Bridge provides a developmental
framework for focusing and
documenting observations. Through
using a literacy developmental
framework such as the Bridge,
teachers such as Roberta and Helen
can come to understand how to
organize and ensure that
observations reveal childrens
current levels of functioning and
interests. For example, Bridge Item
4, Foundations of Writing: How
Does the Child Write? helps to
document a childs use of any sort
of marking tool, including adapted
tools and computers. The following
excerpt from A Guide to Using the
Bridge (Carpenter et al., 2005)
supports teachers to see the possible
trajectory of early writing
development and to also note a
childs possible interest (the beach)
on the basis of what he or she may
be drawing, scribbling, and/or
talking about:
The child begins to demonstrate
writing/scribbling that looks different
from drawing. The child might
identify the writing to you on their
picture. You will still see drawing
and writing-like marks together on a
page at this stage. Note how the
childrens artifacts below each
include some writing-like marks that
may even be identified by the child.
In item 4.3, the child made a mark at
the top of his beach map and told
the teacher that mark says beach.
Item 4.4 has no recognizable
drawings, but the writing has not
yet taken on any indications of
directionality and does not look fully
print-like yet.
To use the Bridge effectively and
efficiently, like any other assessment
tool, teachers must become familiar
with the descriptions of each item
and the ratings for each item. Their
familiarity with the tool will help
teachers know what to look for and
document. The documentation has
to be organized according to the
developmental framework outlined
The Bridge / Pierce
YOUNG EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN Vol. 12, No. 3, June 2009 12
by the Bridge. This level of
preparation is key to making
authentic assessment successful. An
authentic, observation-based
approach to assessment is often
organized into a portfolio for each
child to create a meaningful
collection of a childs work that is
representative of growth across a
period of time. Teachers such as
Roberta and Helen can avoid the
jumble-of-work-samples
syndrome by using the Bridge
framework to organize each childs
portfolio. They can develop
collections of a childs work that are
not simply random assortments of
work samples saved for no
particular reason and tossed in a
folder to be purged at years end.
Rather, use of the Bridge can help
create an organized, meaningful
representation of childrens
functional literacy-related skills to
which teachers and families can
refer frequently to help make data-
based decisions about next steps for
programming.
Conclusions
Preschool teachers such as
Roberta and Helen may be feeling
pressure to document all childrens
literacy development. They may
believe that their young children
often have more literacy skills than
any conventional measure would
ever show. The Bridge offers a
developmental framework of early
literacy growth that will allow
teachers and families to document
emergent literacy skills and show
small steps of growth and
development. Successful
implementation of any authentic
assessment tool, including the
Bridge, requires consideration of the
following factors: training adults to
observe systematically (Raver,
2004), sampling regularly (Meisels,
Bickel, Nicholson, Xue, & Atkins-
Burnett, 2001), and reflecting
With reflection, notes
begin to paint a picture
of child progress and
point the direction for
next steps.

Vol. 12, No. 3, June 2009 YOUNG EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN

The Bridge / Pierce
13
thoughtfully (Gronlund, 1998;
Ratcliff 2001/2002). Preschool
teachers of children with and
without disabilities need to know
the developmental framework of
literacy learning and apply this
knowledge to note taking, artifact
selection, and portfolio
development. Most importantly,
they must know how to use their
observations to inform day-to-day
practice to engage all children in
literacy learning.
Returning to the opening
vignette, Roberta and Helen sat
down at rest time each day to
review what each had observed or
sampled from the children during
the morning. Roberta and Helen
regularly sampled and documented
literacy behaviors. It is even more
important to regularly sample
behaviors for children with
significant disabilities so that small
steps in development will not be
overlooked. The two teachers also
thoughtfully reflected on records
filed. Without reflection, notes are
just notes. With reflection, notes
begin to paint a picture of child
progress and point the direction for
next steps. Reflection, like sampling,
must be done regularly. Together,
they decided what had been
significant enough to save in a
childs file on the basis of the
developmental framework (the
Bridge, in this case) and what might
be most appropriate to offer the
children the next day to support
further skill development.
Observation, note taking,
reflection, and rating using a tool
such as the Bridge can help adults to
better understand and promote the
literacy development in all preschool
children. Teachers like Roberta and
Helen indicate that using the Bridge
has helped them to learn more about
literacy development and successfully
use an authentic, observation-based,
ongoing assessment process. They
hope that you will have this same
experience too.
Note
You may reach Patsy L. Pierce by e-mail at Piercep@med.unc.edu. The authors
wish to thank Meredith College and Lenoir Rhyne College students for their many
contributions to this assessment development process. A special note of appreciation
is extended to the teachers who piloted the Bridge: Emily McDonald (Edgecombe);
Lynn Young and Mary Kay McLeese (Wake); Diane Gielzow (Catawba); Karla
Carpenter (Hickory); Tracey McCormick, Melanie Fortner, and Drew Setchfield
(Cabarrus); and Becky Gilleran and Angie Trantham (Asheville). The authors wish to
also thank the Education Development Center (EDC) for providing access and use of
the TROLL as an inspiration to develop The Bridge to use with children with
significant disabilities.
References
Bagnato, S. J. (2005). The authentic alternative for assessment in early
intervention: An emerging evidence-based practice. Journal of Early
Intervention, 28, 17-22.
Boyd-Batstone, P. (2004). Focused anecdotal records assessment: A tool for
standards-based, authentic assessment. Reading Teacher, 58, 230-239.
The Bridge / Pierce
YOUNG EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN Vol. 12, No. 3, June 2009 14
Carpenter, K., McCormick, T., Pierce, P., Stefely, Summer, G., & Young, L.
(2005). A guide to using the bridge. Available from
http://www.med.unc.edu/ahs/clds (under Projects, Early Reading First)
Daniels, V. I. (1999). The assessment maze: Making instructional decisions
about alternative assessment. Preventing School Failure, 43(4), 171-178.
Dickinson, D., McCabe, A., & Sprague, K. (2001). Teacher rating of oral
language and literacy (TROLL). Retrieved June 12, 2004, from
http://www.ciera.org/library/reports/inquiry-3/3-016/3-016.pdf
Gronlund, G. (1998). Portfolios as an assessment tool: Is collection of work
enough? Young Children, 53(3), 4-10.
Meisels, S., Bickel, D., Nicholson, J., Xue, Y., & Atkins-Burnett, S. (2001).
Trusting teacher judgments: A validity study of a curriculum-embedded
performance assessment in kindergarten to grade 3. American Educational
Research Journal, 38(1), 73-95.
Neisworth, J. T., & Bagnato, S. J. (2004). The mismeasure of young children:
The authentic assessment alternative. Infants and Young Children, 17(3),
198-212.
Pierce, P., Summer, G., & OdeKirk, M. (2005). The Bridge: A portfolio rating
scale of preschool literacy development. Retrieved on December 15, 2006,
from http:www.governor.state.nc.us/Office/Educaton/Home.asp under
training/conferences.
Ratcliff, N. J. (2001/2002). Using authentic assessment to document the
emerging literacy skills of young children. Childhood Education, 78(2),
66-69.
Raver, S. (2004). Monitoring child progress in early childhood special education
settings. Teaching Exceptional Children, 36, 52-57.
Sandall, S., Hemmeter, M. L., Smith, B., & McLean, M. (2005). DEC
recommended practices: A comprehensive guide for practical application in
early intervention/early childhood special education. Longmont, CO: Sopris
West.