Bridging Early Learning, Kindergarten, and First-Grade Content Standards Through Assessment

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

Abstract

1. Objectives or purposes
To discuss how a developmental assessment for kindergarten was updated and expanded to align with Illinois early learning, kindergarten, and first grade content standards and to fit within the state’s policy context and purposes for assessment.

2. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
The Illinois early learning, kindergarten, and first grade content standards were developed with the goal of maximizing the benefits of educational experiences for children by providing teachers with guidance for creating optimal classroom learning environments and designing effective curricula. The Kindergarten Individual Development Survey (KIDS) was established by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), in collaboration with the KIDS advisory committee. Three goals for KIDS were established, to: (1) identify gaps in school readiness, (2) provide information to drive more effective classroom instruction, and (3) support state and local data-driven decision-making on professional development and resource allocation.

3. Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
Illinois’ statewide kindergarten assessment system, KIDS, provides progressions of learning and development that span the kindergarten year. The progressions cover a wide range of development – aligning at the early levels with Illinois early learning standards, then aligning with Illinois kindergarten standards throughout the middle levels of the continuum, and, finally, aligning with expectations for children into first grade at the later levels of the continuum. KIDS is a formative assessment for teachers and school administrators that also provides domain-level summative information for the state education agency.

4. Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
ISBE selected California’s Desired Results Developmental Profile-School Readiness (DRDP-SR), with the intent to customize it for statewide use in Illinois under the name of KIDS. The process of creating the new KIDS instrument then began with an initial alignment of DRDP-SR (2012) with the Illinois early learning and kindergarten content standards. This was done in consultation with the same child development research experts who developed the DRDP-SR (2012) instrument, resulting in the development of new domains and measures. Following initial field test results, the developmental continua for individual measures were widened to align with expectations for children’s learning and development in first grade. Psychometric analysis from second-round field-testing led to further refinement and specification of the developmental levels within the continua.

5. Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
The KIDS instrument is a robust assessment that describes kindergarten expectations specified in the child development research literature and Illinois content standards. Refinements to the instrument were informed by psychometric field test results.

6. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
KIDS is an assessment that documents development for individual children along a continuum, which has relevance for other states undergoing similar efforts to develop a standards-aligned school readiness assessment. Each continuum corresponds to content standards, spanning early learning, kindergarten, and first grade, to support the use of the assessment for teachers to monitor children’s progress throughout the year, and for the state education agency to monitor children’s readiness at the beginning and end of kindergarten.

Authors

• Kerry Kriener-Althen, WestEd

• Kristen Orourke Burmester, University of California - Berkeley

• Peter L. Mangione, WestEd