The Preschool Rating Scale (PRS) consists of twenty Guttman scaled items which assess a preschool child's personal-social development. Experience gained over the past two years indicate that it can be used: (1) for screening; (2) for program evaluation; (3) as a guide to the teachers in identifying specific areas of development which may need remediation; (4) to alert teachers to areas of development which they should be aware of; and (5) to assess day care worker's effectiveness. Norms are available for six groups from 36 to 71 months of age (N = 1,040 children). The norms were developed from urban and suburban advantaged and disadvantaged males and females. Based upon the ratings of 125 children by two groups of raters (pairs of raters rated 15-20 children each independently), the average of interrater correlation coefficient estimates was .74. The usual types of judgmental validity (constructor, user and face) have been obtained. More sophisticated statistical procedures have been used to indicate the predictive and inferential validity. The predictive validity was determined by a discriminant analysis. Inferential validity is indicated by noting that the mean score increases as older age groups are examined. These analyses indicate that the PRS can classify children as typical or non-typical with a high degree of accuracy. (Author)