- The results are used to create a baseline for instruction in the Pre-K and kindergarten classrooms.
The results from last school year’s Kindergarten Readiness Assessment are in and they show students are getting closer to pre-pandemic levels.
Members of the Board of Trustees for the Mississippi Department of Education were presented the results during Thursday’s meeting.
“So, as a reminder, to ensure providers are preparing students for kindergarten the Early Learning Collaborative Act of 2013 required that MDE adopt a minimum rate of readiness for each pre-kindergarten provider participating in the collaborative to remain eligible for the funding,” Chief Accountability Officer Dr. Paula Vanderford told the Board.
Kindergarten readiness tests show parents, teachers, and those providing early childhood care what that child knows and demonstrates their abilities as they enter school. The results are used to create a baseline for instruction in the Pre-K and kindergarten classrooms.
MDE stated that the tests assess how successful Pre-K programs are at preparing 4-year-olds for kindergarten.
Students are expected to get a score of 498 by the time they leave a Pre-K class, a level which ensures they have mastered 70 percent of the necessary early learning skills, Vanderford explained to the Board.
All students are tested in the fall when they start the classes and again in the spring to determine their level of growth.
Vanderford informed the Board that results from the previous spring testing averaged 143 skill points in growth, which is higher than the spring of 2023 where students averaged 137 points of growth. Average growth in 2022 was 142 points.
MDE released that the testing showed roughly a third of students entering kindergarten in the fall are ready for kindergarten. Of the kindergarten students retested in the spring of 2024, 63.8 percent reached the target score. Those results were an increase from the spring 2023 scores of 61.4 percent. Prior to the start of the COVID pandemic in 2019, 65.6 percent of students in kindergarten reached the target.
“Mississippi’s early childhood educators continue to improve achievement among our kindergarten and pre-K students,” said Dr. Lance Evans, the new State Superintendent of Education. “The MDE expects this upward trend to continue as we implement strategies and enhance our support for teachers statewide.”
The number of students served by early learning collaboratives in spring of 2024 was 6,193, an increase from the previous spring’s numbers of 5,119, Vanderford told the Board.
Pre-K programs are expanding across the state with the addition of 12 early learning collaboratives starting up in the 2022-2023 school year.
“So, it’s been quite challenging to meet the demand of the need for coaching efforts with the expansion of this program,” Vanderford explained. “But data supports that participation in the early learning collaborative does yield an increase in positive student outcome.”
State Invested Pre-K programs (SIP) began in 2023 with $20 million of legislative funding as a way to expand MDE’s Pre-K programs. The funding was provided through grants to public schools that did not have early learning collaboratives.
Vanderford told the Board that the first cohort of State Invested Pre-K programs finished the 2023 school year with an average of 140 points of growth. Of the 891 students served by a SIP, 64.2 percent met the end of year benchmark by spring of 2024.
Programs funded by other means, such as Title I, locally funded or self-contained programs, grew by an average of 134 points for the 2023-2024 school year. Those results were similar to results seen in the prior year, Vanderford said.
The total number of kindergarten students tested was 32,736, while 3,999 students in other Pre-K programs were also tested. A total of 6,193 students in early learning collaboratives were also tested.
Jeremy Pittari
