“ISSA advocates policies that ensure that every child regardless of gender, race, religion, nationality or ability has the opportunity to develop to his or her full potential.” This purpose statement is my attraction to this website.
To join the ISSA it costs $65 per year and many benefits come with the fee. Opportunities are provided to participate in free on-line trainings. The training that started in September 2011 includes 12-modules focusing on child-centered education and the framework of ISSA’s Principles for Quality Pedagogy. The course is available in the English language and the Slovak language.
I found a beautiful list of children’s books available to purchase from the ISSA. The authors of the book are from different countries like Haiti, Mongolia, Albania and Czech Republic. The books have a wonderful representation of cultures from around the world and they are all available in 15 different languages.
As I was getting to know the website I came upon the ISSA Pedagogical Standards Observation Form. I immediately pulled out my Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) manual to make some comparisons as both tools use teacher/child interaction observations and score according to a provided rating scale. The ISSA tool rates on seven domains while the CLASS tool rates on ten domains. The ISSA tool includes a Family Participation domain with indicators that focus on family engagement and making the home-school connection; all ten domains of the CLASS observation focus on supporting child development. The three key rating scale for the ISSA tool is ‘consistent’, ‘sometimes’, and ‘rarely’. The CLASS tool includes a rating scale of one to seven; one and two are low scores; three, four and five are middle scores with six and seven being high scores. The CLASS tool does not include an interview with the teacher beforehand whereas the ISSA tool does. The CLASS tool suggests a 20 minute observation and the ISSA tool suggests a 30 minute observation with a 15 minute teacher interview. The CLASS tool requires an observer to take a test to prove they are reliable CLASS observers and maintaining this certification is $35 annually with testing annually. The ISSA tool appears to be a user friendly tool and does not require an annual fee or test.
This website will remain on my ‘favorites’ list so I can easily access it to support my continued work with children and families.
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