The Connecticut Preschool Assessment Framework is a curriculum-embedded tool for assessing 3- and 4-year-old children in their preschool classrooms. It was developed to be a companion to the Connecticut Preschool Curriculum Framework (1999) and articulates comprehensive performance standards or learning outcomes. These curriculum and assessment frameworks provide a system for using standards in both planning curriculum and assessing children's progress. They enable teachers to plan and implement curriculum that addresses specific learning standards and to observe and assess children's progress in achieving these standards. This system focuses curriculum planning on standards, or learning outcomes, rather than primarily on activities. (author abstract)