IEYC, Cambridge Early Years, HighScope, and Reggio: assessment models explained

Quick comparison

IEYC (International Early Years Curriculum)

The IEYC is organised around thematic Learning Units (e.g. "Animals", "Buildings", "Water") and eight Personal Goals: Enquiry, Resilience, Morality, Communication, Thoughtfulness, Co-operation, Respect, and Adaptability.

In School Vault, IEYC assessment works as follows:

• Teachers select the current Learning Unit for their class.
• For each child, they write narrative observations and attach photos, linked to one or more of the eight Personal Goals.
• There is no tick-box checklist, IEYC emphasises holistic, qualitative documentation.
• The progress view shows which Personal Goals have been evidenced for each child and the richness of evidence (number and quality of linked observations).

Cambridge Early Years (CEY)

The Cambridge Early Years framework covers six learning areas: Communication, Physical, Personal-Social, Mathematics, Science, and Expressive Arts. It uses a structured 1–4 rubric scale:

• 1, Beginning: rarely shows the behaviour
• 2, Developing: sometimes shows the behaviour
• 3, Establishing: consistently shows the behaviour
• 4, Extending: consistently and independently demonstrates the behaviour in new contexts

In School Vault, teachers select a score of 1–4 for each indicator in each learning area. The progress percentage is derived from the average rubric score across all assessed indicators.

HighScope

HighScope uses Key Developmental Indicators (KDIs) organised into eight content areas: Approaches to Learning, Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development, Language/Literacy, Mathematics, Creative Arts, Science and Technology, Social Studies.

In School Vault:

• Teachers record anecdotal notes, brief factual descriptions of what a child said or did, and link them to specific KDIs.
• There is no pre-set scale; the note itself is the evidence.
• The observation count per KDI is shown so teachers can see where they have sufficient evidence and where they need more.
• The assessment report shows a KDI evidence map, which KDIs have evidence and which are blank, rather than a numeric score.

Reggio Emilia

Reggio Emilia is documentation-first: the process of learning is the assessment. In School Vault, Reggio assessment centres on Documentation Panels, rich, visual records of a project or investigation that include photos, quotes from children, observations, and reflections.

• Teachers create a Panel linked to a project theme.
• They add photos, captions, and children's quotes to the panel.
• Multiple children can be tagged in the same panel, so the documentation becomes a shared class story.
• The Learning Journal PDF for a Reggio-assessed child shows their panel contributions as visual spreads.

Choosing between frameworks

• Choose IEYC if your school has IEYC accreditation or if your parents expect international curriculum documentation.
• Choose Cambridge Early Years if you are affiliated with Cambridge Assessment International Education or plan to transition to Cambridge Primary.
• Choose HighScope if your school is trained in the HighScope approach and staff know Plan-Do-Review well.
• Choose Reggio Emilia if your pedagogy is built around projects, provocations, and the atelier studio approach.

Common mistakes

• Choosing Reggio and then asking why there is no progress percentage, Reggio philosophy intentionally does not support numeric scoring.
• Using IEYC without running the thematic Learning Units, the framework loses coherence if children are being observed against a theme that does not match what they are actually doing.
• Switching from Cambridge Early Years to IEYC mid-year, the rubric scores from CEY do not map to IEYC's narrative model. See article 2.4 on mid-term changes.
• Underestimating the photography volume needed for Reggio documentation, clear, high-quality photos are the core of Reggio assessment panels. Plan accordingly.