NASA Goddard Child Development Center
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Assessment is the planned and systematic process of observing, recording, and documenting what children do and how they do it. Teachers then analyze the information as a basis for a variety of educational decisions that affect the child, including determining the child’s interests and needs. Informal assessments occur every day through observation and work sampling.

Assessments span across the four developmental domains: social-emotional, physical, cognitive, and language. There is a strong teacher-parent partnership with observational recording. GCDC utilizes a web-based portfolio system to manage each child’s portfolio and to develop individual learning plans.  Families can access their child’s portfolio at any time via the web. 

The results of assessments are used to adapt and improve the curriculum, as well as to develop specific teaching approaches and practices and to refine instructional strategies to meet the individual needs of the children. The results are also used to provide the optimal learning environment and to inform and assess overall program development and improvement. Assessment may also be used to arrange for developmental screening and referral for diagnostic evaluation for a child when indicated.

Child Portfolios

At GCDC, every student has an online portfolio. We refer to this as GOLD. Parents can access this password-protected data via any internet-ready computer.  Our goal is to get to know as much as possible about each child so that our teachers can and plan learning experiences that meet can the child’s individual needs.

Throughout the school year, we use this tool as a way to share information with parents about their child’s learning. We use an authentic, observation-based assessment system to gather information on each child’s development and learning. We then enter that data into GOLD. We encourage parents to review data as it is shared and partner with our Teachers to support learning at home.
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To learn more about child portfolios, click here.
NASA/GSFC Code 200.9
Building 90
Greenbelt, Maryland 20771
info@gcdc-nasa.org
Phone: (301) 286-8588

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GCDC Philosophy
It is the philosophy of the Goddard Child Development Center to create a stimulating environment in which children can learn through exploration and discovery with teachers acting as facilitators.