The Role of a Statewide Kindergarten Assessment for Teachers, Administrators, and a State Education Agency

• In Event: 46.031 - The Intersecting Roles of Policy, Practice, and Research in Adopting a Statewide Kindergarten Readiness Assessment

Abstract

1. Explore the statewide implementation of a developmental assessment in kindergarten: The instrument’s utility for different levels within the educational system will be considered, including the kindergarten teachers who perform the assessments and use the results to inform curriculum, school and district administrators, and the state education agency.

2. A developmental curriculum-embedded assessment that provides formative, interim progress, and summative information about children’s learning has the potential to enhance curriculum planning, provide data that help administrators monitor progress in improving educational outcomes, and identify areas for professional development at the local level. Curriculum-embedded assessment that is based on research-based constructs, aligned to standards, and developed through a rigorous process of piloting, field testing, and calibration produce data that can be aggregated and used beyond the primary purpose of informing teaching practice in the classroom. At the state level, results can be analyzed to provide information about statewide trends in children’s readiness for kindergarten and their progress during the kindergarten year. With the current national trend toward using assessment data as a component of improving practice and evaluating teachers, such information can be considered in efforts to design an approach to professional development that supports effective teaching. In particular, attention must be paid to ensuring that participants in the system perceive that data collection and the use of the results are contributing positively toward improving education without compromising the roles of the participants.

3. Illinois has implemented a statewide observational assessment system in kindergarten for documenting individual children’s progress. Teachers periodically assess children’s progress on a continuum of learning and development in key domains, which are aligned with early learning, kindergarten, and first grade content standards and with the child development research literature. Teachers receive training on how to observe and document children’s knowledge, skills, and behaviors over time, and how to use the results to guide curriculum planning and to communicate with parents about children’s progress. School and district administrators are encouraged to participate in the teacher training and also receive guidance about how to use the data to guide professional development opportunities for teachers that support their use of the assessment.

4. This paper will highlight various purposes for which curriculum-embedded developmental assessment results have been used, along with considerations and implications for each purpose. The other papers in this session will elaborate on the various uses and results.

5. Illinois’ statewide assessment system has been informed by rigorous assessment practices, the child development research literature, an advisory committee of statewide experts, and local and state policymakers.

6. Assessment is a key component of Race-to-the-Top–Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) Grant requirements. As states implement RTT-ELC, they are balancing data-collection burden with utilizing data for various purposes, including local and statewide monitoring of children’s progress and formative and summative assessment. Illinois’ approach to using assessment data within the statewide and national landscapes will provide important insights that will contribute to similar work in other states and nationally.

Authors

• Peter L. Mangione, WestEd

• Mark R. Wilson, University of California - Berkeley

• Reyna P. Hernandez, Illinois State Board of Education