Students can be assessed in accordance with state standards or learning frameworks by tracking developmental milestones attached to specific activities. Teachers can post activity observations to track a student's milestones. Staff can view the milestones from the assessment tab in the student's profile.
Assessment Framework Setup
Assessment frameworks are comprised of domains that represent crucial areas of learning and development for young children. Each domain includes specific developmental milestones.
Many states have assessment frameworks. Assessment frameworks can be selected from a student's profile. The assessment framework only needs to be added once.
Once it is selected on one student's profile, it will apply to all students at your center. These frameworks follow state curriculum guidelines, but you can customize them for your school by adding or editing domains, subdomains, standards, and milestones using Manage curriculum.
💡 Assessment frameworks follow each state’s official curriculum guidelines. If your state isn’t listed, contact Playground Support. You’ll need to download the official curriculum documentation from your state’s education website and send it to us so our team can build the framework for you. Creating a new framework usually takes a few weeks. If the wrong state framework was selected, you’ll also need to contact support so we can reset it for your center.
From the web version of Playground, click My School and then Students.
Click any student's name.
Adding a lesson framework for one student will automatically apply it to all students at your center.
Click the Assessment tab in the student's profile.
Select the assessment framework you would like to add and then click Set Template.
Once the framework has been added, you will see the domains, as well as any milestones that have been recorded for the student (you won't see any milestones yet if you are adding the framework for the first time).
Click the age dropdown menu towards the right-hand side of your screen to view domains for a different age range.
💡 Now that you've selected a framework, you can add milestones to related activities and post student observations for those activities. Student observations will appear in the assessments tab on the student's profile.
Manage Curriculums/Frameworks
After selecting a state framework, you can add and edit domains, subdomains, standards, and milestones. If you don't have the option to do so, your role most likely doesn't have the required access.
💡 Changes made in one student profile will update for all students.
Manage Domains
From the web version of Playground, navigate to your My School -> Students tab and click into any student's profile.
Select the Assessments tab.
Click the Manage curriculum button to open the editing side panel.
Click the blue + Add button to add a new domain.
Enter a name for the domain and click Add domain to add it. You can also select the Add another checkbox to add an additional domain right after adding the first one.
Both previous and newly added domains can be deleted by clicking the trash can icon next to them. The names can also be edited by clicking the pencil icon.
Drag and drop each domain card in the top left-hand corner to adjust the order.
Manage Subdomains
From the web version of Playground, navigate to your My School -> Students tab and click into any student's profile.
Select the Assessments tab.
Click the Manage curriculum button to open the editing side panel.
Click into a Domain and select the # subdomain button under one of the domains.
Click the + Add button to add a new subdomain.
Enter a name for the subdomain and click Add subdomain to add it. You can also select the Add another checkbox to add an additional subdomain right after adding the first one.
Both previous and newly added subdomains can be deleted by clicking the trash can icon next to them. The names can also be edited by clicking the pencil icon.
Drag and drop each subdomain card in the top left-hand corner to adjust the order.
Manage Standards
From the web version of Playground, navigate to your My School -> Students tab and click into any student's profile.
Select the Assessments tab.
Click the Manage curriculum button to open the editing side panel.
Click into a Domain, Subdomain, and select the # standards button to edit standards within a subdomain.
Click the + Add button to add a new standard.
Enter a name for the standard and click Add standard to add it. You can also select the Add another checkbox to add an additional standard right after adding the first one.
Both previous and newly added standards can be deleted by clicking the trash can icon next to them. The names can also be edited by clicking the pencil icon.
Drag and drop each standard card in the top left-hand corner to adjust the order.
Manage Milestones
From the web version of Playground, navigate to your My School -> Students tab and click into any student's profile.
Select the Assessments tab.
Click the Manage curriculum button to open the editing side panel.
Click into a Domain, Subdomain, Standard, and then select the # milestone button to edit milestones within the standard.
Click the + Add button to add a new milestone. You can also select Add substandard to add a substandard.
Enter a Description, Code, Age range, and click Add milestone to add it. You should then see the milestone appear under the age range you entered.
Both previous and newly added milestones can be deleted by clicking the trash can icon next to them. The names can also be edited by clicking the pencil icon.
Drag and drop each standard card in the top left-hand corner to adjust the order.
Add Milestones to Activities
Milestones can be added to individual activities in the Learning Skills tab of the Edit Lesson Activity page.
From the web version of Playground, click the Lessons tab and then Activities.
Click an activity to open the Edit Lesson Activity page.
Select the Next: Select Milestones button in the top left-hand corner.
A list of the domains in your framework will appear. Click on a domain to view all its milestones.
Select the checkboxes next to the milestones that should be attached to the activity.
Click Save changes in the top right corner of your screen to save the changes made to the activity.
💡 Now that milestones are attached to activities, you can record observations to track students' progress through these milestones.
Record Activity Observations & Milestones
Student milestones are tracked by recording activity observations, which can be viewed from the Assessment tab on a student's profile.
On Mobile
From the Playground mobile app, tap the + New Post button in the top left corner of the screen.
Select Observation as the post type and then select the checkboxes next to the student(s) for whom you want to record observations.
Tap Select an Activity at the top of the screen and choose the activity the students completed.
The milestones related to the activity will appear under the student's name. Select the rating for each student and add notes.
[Optional] Add a photo or video to the post.
Tap the blue Post button in the top right corner of the screen to post the observation(s).
On Web
From the web version of Playground, click the Feed tab on the left-hand side of your screen.
Click the Announcement dropdown towards the top of your screen and select Observation.
Select which students you want to add the observation to.
Depending on post and school settings, you may see two icons towards the top of the window. Click here for more info on editing the default observation post type.
Click the Eye icon to hide the post from guardians, while keeping it visible to staff. If you don't see the Eye icon, make sure to enable the Allow individual posts to be hidden from guardians for the default observation post type.
Click the Chat icon to enable or disable comments on the post.
If you are creating the post for multiple students at a time, you can choose Bulk details to record the same information for each selected student.
Input a Date and Start time, or leave as is, and optionally select an Activity to link to the post.
You can also optionally add a milestone to the post if a curriculum has been added to your account.
If a milestone is added, you will then be prompted to select a milestone rating.
Finally, optionally add a note or attach a file to the post.
Once you have added all the necessary details, click Post.
💡 Now that you've recorded a milestone, you can view it in the Assessments tab of a student's profile.
Manage the Default Observation Post Type
When recording an observation and adding milestones, you will be given 5 default rating options: Almost never, Rarely, Occasionally, Frequently, and Almost always.
If these, or other options, don't perfectly fit your needs, follow the instructions below to edit them:
From the web version of Playground, click into your Feed tab on the left-hand side of your screen.
Select Post types towards the right-hand side of your screen.
Click the pencil icon next to Observation.
This will then allow you to edit the following sections:
Details
Allow text: Keep this toggled on to allow typed content.
Allow media attachments: Keep this toggled on to allow photos and videos.
Rating options: Click Edit ratings to define the rating scale when recording observations.
Select Add rating to add a new rating to your list, or click the pencil icon next to any text box to edit the current ratings. Each rating is color-coded so they can be easily identified.
Click the red trash can icon next to any rating to delete it.
💡 You can add as many ratings as you would like. There is no limit.
Visibility & permissions
Post visibility: Set permissions for who can see posts of this type (Everyone, Admin roles only, or Staff roles only).
Allow individual posts to be hidden from guardians: Toggle this on to give the option to show or hide from guardians when creating a post.
Requires admin approval: Toggle this on to require posts made by teachers to get admin approval to be published.
Post creation permissions: Select which roles can create posts of this type.
Settings
Checked-in students only: Turn this toggle on to require all students for the post to be checked in.
Staff acknowledgements: Turn this toggle on to enable and add how many staff acknowledgements you would like added to each post.
Parent signature: Toggle this on to add an in-app alert for parents to sign the post as an acknowledgement.
Click Save when finished.
View Student Assessments and Observations
🚨 Student assessments can only be viewed on the web version of Playground.
From the web version of Playground, click My School and then Students.
Click the student's name and then click the Assessments tab on their profile.
Click into one of the frequencies under a domain.
Select a milestone for more information and the observations recorded.
