Early Years Evaluation-Teacher Assessment: French Version Validation

Screening Francophone children for school readiness across important developmental domains is crucial if their needs are to be attended to in a timely fashion. The universal screening instrument Early Years Evaluation – Teacher Assessment (EYE-TA) is available in French and known as Évaluation de la petite enfance – appreciation de l’enseignante (ÉPE-AE). This study is the first to validate the psychometric properties of the ÉPE-AE and to discuss its validity in the context in which it is used. Three questions guided this research: 1) To what extent are the results of the ÉPE-AE reliable? 2) To what extent are the results of the ÉPE-AE valid? and 3) Which items, if any, in the ÉPE-AE demonstrate linguistic bias relative to the original English version? It is concluded that the ÉPE-EA is a highly reliable, valid and unbiased assessment relative to its English version. As such it can be used with confidence as a universal screening test to assess Francophone children’s development as they begin school. This study is useful to early childhood educators, educational psychologists, kindergarten and resource teachers, and school administrators.