Step-by-step: How to create a milestone-based summative assessment in Playground 

Milestone-based summative assessments in Xplor Education’s Playground are an effective tool for educators. These assessments help track a child’s learning progress. They also document development over time.  

The assessments provide a comprehensive snapshot of each child’s achievements. This documentation helps ensure smooth transitions when children move between rooms. They also support transitions to school. 

This blog will guide you through creating milestone-based summative assessments in Playground. It will explain each step clearly and provide examples to help you get started. 

Understanding milestone-based summative assessments 

Summative assessments are typically conducted at the end of a learning period. For example, this might happen at the end of a term, semester or year. These assessments summarise a child’s progress across different areas of development. These may include physical, cognitive and social-emotional skills.

In Playground, a milestone-based summative assessment uses a set of predefined developmental milestones. They’re used to track a child’s progress. These milestones align with ACECQA’s approved early learning frameworks. They help educators document a child’s journey towards meeting developmental goals. 

Milestone-based assessments offer clear benefits. They provide a structured way to track each child’s development. They flag concerns that enable early intervention, which helps ensure children are continuously set up for success. This tracking happens over time.

The assessments also make sharing easier. Educators can share insights with families or other educators. Future school teachers benefit from these insights, too. This helps ensure continuity in care and education. 

Setting up your Playground platform for milestone-based assessments 

You need to set up Playground first and ensure it can track milestones. This must happen before creating assessments. Here’s how to do it: 

Step 1: Accessing the Playground web platform 

Log in to your Playground account on the web. This will be your primary platform for completing programming, documentation and learning assessments. 

Step 2: Adding the milestone tracker 

The milestone tracker is an essential feature for milestone-based assessments. To enable this, follow these steps: 

Once the milestone tracker is set up, you’ll be able to use it to track a child’s development across these key areas. 

Creating your milestone-based summative assessment 

Once you’ve set up the milestone tracker, you’re ready to document a child’s development. Here’s a detailed breakdown of how to create a milestone-based summative assessment.  

Step 3: Select the child’s profile 

To begin, select the child for whom you are creating the summative assessment. Each child in your Playground system has a unique profile. Their profile includes their individual milestones, progress and other learning data. 

Step 4: Choose the milestones 

Each milestone corresponds to a specific developmental goal the child is working towards. For example: 

Each developmental area includes a set of milestones. As you assess the child, you can mark whether they  

Step 5: Documenting the child’s progress 

For each milestone, you can add documentation that supports the assessment. This can include: 

For example, suppose a child is working on a physical milestone, such as balancing. In that case, you might upload a photo or video of the child practising balance activities. You can include a note about how they’ve improved over time. 

Step 6: Collaborating with other educators and families 

Collaboration is key when creating comprehensive assessments. Playground allows you to involve multiple educators in the process. To do so, simply add them as collaborators on the child’s profile. 

Step 7: Finalising the summative assessment 

Ensure you’ve gathered all the evidence and feedback. Then you can create the summative assessment. Playground offers several layout options for organising these assessments: 

Step 8: Reviewing and editing 

After creating the summative assessment, take some time to review the entire document. Ensure that all milestones have been addressed and that the evidence is well-organised. 

Step 9: Sharing the summative assessment 

Once finalised, you can share the assessment in several ways: 

Milestone-based summative assessments are a great option for several reasons

Creating milestone-based assessments in Playground is simple and effective. They help track each child’s progress. They also ensure children are ready for their next learning stage. 

The Playground platform provides educators with powerful tools for documenting developmental milestones. They can collaborate with others and quickly share information. This makes supporting children during transitions much easier.  

Following step-by-step instructions helps create better assessments. These assessments become comprehensive and meaningful. They guide both educators and families, helping support the child’s growth and development.  

Milestone-based assessments work for different transitions. Children may be moving to a new room or preparing for school. Milestone-based summative assessments in Playground ensure children’s learning journeys continue smoothly and successfully. 

Learn more about how Playground can help educators document each child’s learning more efficiently.