Georgia's Pre-K Work Sampling System Assessment Program
Four years of development went into defining school readiness and creating Georgia's Pre-K Child Assessment. A large group including Pre-K directors and teachers, early childhood experts, child advocacy groups, and early childhood professional organizations guided the process. A year of work led to the selection of the Work Sampling System (WSS), developed by Dr. Samuel J. Meisels and distributed by Pearson Early Learning, as a core component of Georgia's Pre-K Child Assessment. WSS best combined a measure of all of the domains within the Georgia Pre-K Content Standards and the guildelines established by the advisory committee. WSS was piloted in select Pre-K programs around the state during the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 school years. Changes were made to the program based on the pilot program results, and Georgia's Pre-K Child Assessment was implemented statewide during the 2006-2007 school year.