• The COS-KC is an assessment that provides a general assessment of COS knowledge.
• Questions include content about:
• The three child outcomes and why they are measured,
• Functionality of skills and how they relate to the three child outcomes,
• COS teaming,
• The 1-7 COS rating scale,
• Age anchoring (Age Expected (AE), Immediate Foundational (IF), and Foundational (F) Skills)
• Evidence/documentation
• There are too few questions on the assessment to provide valid ratings of each of these content areas separately. Rather, the COS-KC assesses general COS background knowledge as a whole.
• A field test in 2021 included about 300 practitioners from across the nation. Practitioners provided basic information about their background and training experiences, took the assessment, and answered a follow-up feedback survey about the clarity of questions and reactions to the assessment.
• Six different assessment forms (three for practitioners working with children Birth to 3 years and three for practitioners working with children ages 3-5 years) were field tested. Each form initially had 42 multiple-choice items.
• Both individual items and the assessment as a whole were shown to be strong. The multiple forms performed similarly.
• Practitioner training/experience/knowledge was related to assessment performance
• Practitioners shared strong positive feedback about the items and specific feedback about items informed item selection.
• Results showed that the assessment was valid using multiple analytic approaches.
• In the end, six forms with 30 items each (three forms for each age group) and pass/fail certification were finalized.

A more detailed technical report about the COS-KC will be available later in 2023.