Getting Started with MyTeachingStrategies® Setup
Overview
This handbook is designed to provide Texas school districts guidance on how to set up child records in GOLD®, how to complete the child assessment data, and what child assessment data is required for the TEA Early Childhood Data System (ECDS) report for the 2021/2022 school year. It will be important that school districts complete this information correctly to have clean XML files to submit through the TSDS system.
According to guidance provided by TEA, all school districts are required to submit BOY (Fall checkpoint) and EOY (Spring checkpoint) child assessment data through the ECDS process by June 23, 2022. Teaching Strategies knows that there are no two school districts who have identical circumstances. However, TEA does require a standardized process for submitting your ECDS reports and what child assessment data is included in this report.
Teachers should assess children’s development and learning with the full set of objectives for development and learning because doing so ensures they understand the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the whole child. Using the full item set also ensures area-level scores and reporting are as accurate and precise as possible. In the past TEA has accepted a score of -999 for a child who was not assessed in an area however for the upcoming school year TEA has removed this option and all children must be assessed using the full item set for each required domain and area.
School districts and programs are required to submit child assessment data for the following domain areas: Health and Wellness; Language and Communication; Emergent Literacy – Reading & Writing; and Mathematics. Due to possible distance learning situations for the upcoming school year Teaching Strategies understands that teachers may not be able to assess all objectives for development and learning in each area. However, it is important to note that assessing a smaller number of items in a particular area will affect the precision of the outcomes for a specified domain area and the end score may not fall within the GOLD® proficiency range.
This guide contains the following information:
- Getting Started with MyTeachingStrategies® (For Administrators)
- Entering Child Profile Records in GOLD®
- Important ECDS Information to Include with Each Child Record
- Completing Child Assessment Data
- ECDS Required Child Assessment Data
- List of Common ECDS Errors
If you have any questions about this process, please contact Teaching Strategies at txecds@teachingstrategies.com.
