Capture Observations in the Moment with GOLD® Assessment

“With GOLD®, assessment is an authentic part of instruction, not a disruption. Embedded in your everyday interactions with children in the classroom, formative assessment is an effortless, organic part of your teaching day. You can easily capture, organize, and store notes, photos, videos, and digital samples of children’s work in the moment to make observations authentic, objective, and easy to remember.

The primary intent of GOLD® is to help teachers observe and understand child progress, plan instruction, and support child growth and development. Moreover, unlike direct assessment, the process gives young children agency by directly involving them in meaningful interactions that signal developmental progress.

The assessment model used in GOLD follows widely held expectations for children from birth through third grade and enables a whole-child approach to assessment. Color-coded progressions guide teachers toward selecting and adapting activities that support each child’s development and learning, including those with disabilities. Meaningful reports inform classroom practices and individualized instruction.

Taking a whole-child approach, GOLD® assesses children’s development and learning across four developmental domains (social–emotional, physical, language, cognitive) and five content domains (literacy, mathematics, science and technology, social studies, and the arts). It also includes a tenth domain, English language acquisition, for use with dual-language learners (DLLs).”