devMilestones
devMilestones is a brief, observation-based, criterion-referenced rating scale used to track student development in key areas of academic and social-emotional behavior functioning during preschool and kindergarten.
devMilestones helps capture the time and stage at which students demonstrate performance relative to established milestones—from emerging levels through to mastery.
devMilestones Domains
devMilestones is grounded within the conceptual model that a student’s success in kindergarten is predicated upon the development of skills across six domains. The 47 items comprising the devMilestones correspond to those domains:
Language, Literacy, and Communications Development (12 items)
Skills related to a student’s ability to acquire and use language in support of academic tasks and social interactions.
Cognitive Development (10 items)
Skills related to a student’s ability to acquire and use mathematical knowledge in support of academic tasks. Also reflective of a student’s capacity to reason and appreciate human interconnectedness.
Social-Emotional and Behavior (SEB) Development (8 items)
Skills related to a student’s awareness of their own cognition, emotions, and behaviors, as well as those of adults and peers. Also related to a student’s sense of self and ability to establish and maintain relationships with adults and peers.
Creativity and the Arts (6 items)
Skills related to a student’s capacity to appreciate art, as well as generate artistic works.
Approaches to Learning (6 items)
Attitudes and behaviors that influence a student’s ability to effectively engage and benefit from instruction.
Physical and Motor Development (7 items)
Skills and behaviors indicative of a student’s physical capabilities and understanding of physical health and well-being.
By evaluating in which of the six specific domains a student is at risk, educators may determine what type of supports are most appropriate and which problem behaviors should be prioritized through intervention. For instance, if a student is only at risk for emotional problems, then a school may decide to target emotional behaviors via the application of social-emotional learning programs.
Screening
devMilestones is a 47-item observation-based rating system designed for screening all students in school-based pre-kindergarten and kindergarten programs three times a year. It can also be used with students in first grade who have exhibited developmental delays.
Progress Monitoring
devMilestones is not intended for progress monitoring.
Administration
devMilestones is a teacher-observation rating scale that may be completed using a computer or tablet. Teachers indicate how frequently the student in question has displayed each developmental milestone during the previous month. Therefore it is important that the teacher should have interacted extensively with each student during that time period.
What Is Lab Status?
In order to reduce the typical 10- to 30-year gap between university research and classroom results, FastBridge releases developing assessments in “Lab Status.” This phase allows educators to preview new tools and provide feedback on functionality. It also allows FastBridge researchers to confirm the psychometric properties of new measures when used in everyday classroom settings. This results in more accurate benchmarks and norms once the measure moves out of Lab Status.
