data smatta. skill teacher knows assessment is important to drive instruction and help a child progress to the next level but any entitled teach also knows there is so much to a 4, 5 and 6-year-old than solely taking test data and experts also know that at this age so many things happen developmentally, one can't box kids up by grade level. a child is a portfolio of knowledge assessed by the teacher in so many ways. you wouldn't compare an 18-month old baby to an 8-month-old and yet we are required to hold children to this comparison daily. data director which keeps track of a student's test scores and their teachers may tell you how many letters of the alphabet a student knows or if he can count to 100 but what's missing is how he mixes the color of paint, his smile when he figures out how to write his last name, finally feeling secure not enough to be scared in the lunch room, making a new friend, his delight when he tastes a lemonade he learned how to squeeze out of lemons, his excitement when