Child assessment is a vital component of high-quality early childhood education programs. The designated assessment tool for Alabama First Class Pre-K and the P-3 program is Teaching Strategies GOLD®. The department supports programs and educators using assessments to do what is best for young children.
The Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education has a nightly integration with MyTeachingStrategies®, which links to the department’s student information system. This will automatically populate your account, your class and children. After you receive notification from your First-Class Pre-K coach that classes and children have loaded for the school year, you may access your account. This typically happens in early August.
IMPORTANT to note once you have successfully accessed your MyTeachingStrategies® account:
Your classes and children will be uploaded into MyTeachingStrategies® for you
Please DO NOT add or delete any classes or children in the system
Region Directors send new teachers a link to the Personnel Profile Form (PPF). A username will be created 24-48 hours after submitting the PPF. After the 24-48 hour timeframe, enter the username format in the MyTeachingStrategies® log-in field. Select Forgot Password. A temporary password will be sent to the email address you provided on the PPF.
If the PPF has been filled out prior to the school year, teachers do not need to attempt to access their account until they have received information from their First Class Pre-K coach.
You have access to MyTeachingStrategies®, the GOLD® Assessment, The Creative Curriculum® Cloud for Pre-school, ReadyRosie, and the PD Teacher Membership
IRR completion is expected within 30 days after the 12-hour MyTeachingStrategies®/GOLD® platform professional development session has concluded. If teachers do not have access to their own accounts at the time of training, then the expectation is within 30 days from gaining account access.
Alabama First-Class Pre-K teachers should complete the Preschool/Pre-K Exam, available in English and Spanish, located in the Quorum eLearning Platform (access through the Develop tab in MyTeachingStrategies®). Alabama P-3 teachers should complete the Kindergarten Exam.
Contact your First-Class Pre-K coach if you have not yet received The First Six Weeks: Building Your Preschool Classroom Community materials.
Alabama First-Class Pre-K suggests that most objectives need at least two pieces of quality documentation for an accurate assessment rating at checkpoint. Your First-Class Pre-K coach can give further guidance and support as some objectives may need more (or less) documentation, to help support the instructional process for student outcomes. How much documentation is required for each objective and dimension in order to finalize my checkpoint ratings? (Support Article)
Please work with the child’s Case Manager or individual(s) responsible for supporting the child through the IEP, and be sure to review the guidance for First-Class Pre-K teachers (as well as other resources) in the AL OSEP Support & Resources Padlet.
During this hands-on 2-day session, participants will examine the importance of ongoing formative assessment and reflect on their current teaching and assessment practices. Participants will identify the purposes of summative and formative assessment and examine resources used to facilitate the collection of data. Participants will also practice using a variety of tools to gather authentic information about children’s knowledge, skills, and abilities.*
Audience: teachers, administrators, coaches
*This is a required training
During this engaging 3-hour session, participants will be introduced to ReadyRosie®, an early education tool that helps families, schools, and communities deepen and scale their family engagement efforts. Participants will explore ReadyRosie® resources and technology that enable ongoing two-way communication between families and the classroom. Participants will learn how to register families and caregivers and create and share curated Modeled Moments videos and playlists. Additionally, participants will be introduced to other helpful ReadyRosie® resources, including a collection of ready-to-use family workshops.
Audience: teachers, administrators, coaches
The Creative Curriculum® Cloud couples our leading early childhood curriculum with powerful digital planning tools. During this 3-hour session, facilitated in Spanish, participants will explore the dynamic teaching resources available in the Creative Curriculum® Cloud Digital Content Library. Participants will discover the MyTeachingStrategies® Family app and investigate impactful family engagement strategies. Additionally, participants will learn how to use The Creative Curriculum® Cloud to streamline their planning and individualize learning experiences for children.
Audience: teachers, administrators, coaches
During this 1-day session, administrators, coaches, and program leaders will learn how to support the implementation of Teaching Strategies GOLD®. Participants will examine the characteristics of high-quality documentation, discover how to navigate the Assess tab in MyTeachingStrategies®, and explore the powerful reporting resources that can inform data driven decision-making. Participants will also discover strategies that support program management, leadership, and data-driven decision-making. Administrators and coaches will identify strategies to support educators throughout the assessment process and will analyze and construct plans to respond to current program data.
Audience: administrators, coaches
This engaging and impactful 6-hour advanced GOLD® professional development session will provide educators with the knowledge and skills to effectively use assessment and instructional planning to support children’s learning and development. Participants will learn about the four steps in the assessment process, the characteristics of high-quality documentation, and how to use MyTeachingStrategies® to develop responsive daily, weekly, and monthly instructional plans. Additionally, participants will learn how to use reports to summarize, plan, and communicate children’s progress to families and professionals
Audience: teachers, administrators, coaches who have attended Intro to GOLD
Alabama Department of
Early Childhood Education
RSA Dexter Avenue Building
445 Dexter Avenue, Suite 2050
Montgomery, Alabama 36104
Phone: 334-224-3171
Fax: 334-353-0362
