A Process for Determining Criterion Zone Boundaries for Kindergarten Readiness Assessments

• 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 outline the Illinois State Board of Education’s process for relating the results of its kindergarten readiness assessment, the Kindergarten Individual Development Survey (KIDS), to standards-based expectations for children’s readiness at the beginning and end of kindergarten, thereby determining ‘criterion-zone boundaries’ for readiness.

2. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) is undertaking a process for determining how KIDS results relate to standards-based expectations at the beginning and end of kindergarten. This process of determining readiness boundaries relies on the collective work of multiple stakeholders, including policy makers, content and assessment experts, and other advisory groups. The work of these stakeholders is in turn informed by the coalescence of developmental theory, alignment with standards, and empirical evidence.

3. Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
Using the KIDS assessment instrument as a guide, ISBE is forming a Domain Committee that will review each item on the KIDS instrument and determine the developmental levels that most closely correspond to Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards and kindergarten content standards. Simultaneously, quantitative analyses of empirical data using teacher ratings of students with the KIDS instrument are being conducted using Item Response Theory (IRT). Using empirical information about the relationship between the quantitative scales of measurement and the qualitative descriptions of development embedded in the KIDS instrument, the Domain Committees make recommendations to ISBE for criterion-zone boundaries that correspond to ranges of readiness.

4. Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
Data sources for the criterion zone setting process will include subsets of the KIDS domains that correspond to the Illinois standards of readiness at the beginning of kindergarten (Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards, IELDS) and at the end of kindergarten (Illinois Early Learning Standards – Kindergarten, IELS-K). KIDS is based upon research literature in early child development. Additionally, IRT analysis is being conducted with KIDS implementation rating data collected by kindergarten teachers throughout the state of Illinois.

5. Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
Based on the criterion zone boundaries generated for individual KIDS domains, indices of readiness will be created as a weighted sum of terms, with each term being based on a different individual domain criterion zone boundary. For each index, ranges of readiness are being generated that are informed by the child development research literature, state content standards, and Illinois stakeholders, and the empirical results referred to above.

6. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
KIDS was developed by ISBE to help identify gaps in school readiness, provide information to drive more effective classroom instruction, and to support state and local-driven decision-making on professional development an resource allocation. The establishment of effective criterion zone boundaries,will provide the state education agency, state policymakers, and other key stakeholders throughout Illinois with summative information about the readiness of children at the beginning and end of kindergarten to inform the state’s efforts to support early learning and school readiness for all children.

Authors

• Stephen M. Moore, University of California - Berkeley

• Kerry Kriener-Althen, WestEd

• Mark R. Wilson, University of California - Berkeley

• Kara Sammet, University of California - Berkeley