Kindergarten Entry Assessments
Author name
Institutional affiliation
Course number and name
Instructor’s name
Assignment due date
Kindergarten Entry Assessments
Kindergarten Entry Assessment (KEA) is a process that helps teachers to understand what children know and are able to learn at the time when they get enrolled in kindergarten (Blessing, 2019). In other words, the KEA process provides a snapshot of a child’s development and has been in the recent past highly adopted by various states in their assessment systems. There are various reasons why States develop kindergarten entry assessments. First, the assessments are meant to screen the children to identify any underlying developmental anomalies which may hinder their participation in some school activities and programs. Secondly, the assessments yield important information that may be necessary for a teacher to communicate to parents. Lastly, the information obtained from the assessments is useful in policymaking as it highlights critical trends over time and differences between different groups of children.
One of the states that have incorporated the KEA practice is the State of Massachusetts. Within the state, the practice is meant to assist and prepare teachers in collecting observational data across the different domains of individualized learning. The KEA practices in Massachusetts are centered on two major trends, which are ideally similar in so many ways with the KEA practices in other states. The first trend involves a set of policies that recommend the administration of a specific set of assessments to the children during the initial months of school. These policies are mainly meant to inform how teachers deliver content to the learners by keeping in mind the various factors that affect a child’s cognitive ability and performance of other executive functions (Ackerman, 2020). The second trend is the prevalent use of digital technology in classroom settings in the form of mobile apps, touchscreen devices, and online learning.
The State of Massachusetts adopted the KEA practices in March 2014. In the policy that guides the KEA practice within the state, some of the provisions are the compulsory school-entry age of six years. However, the policy leaves room for a school committee to determine the minimum age for which children should start school. There are also no age exemptions that are specified in the statute. According to the policy, the children are to be taught for a maximum of five hours per day, only on matters concerning literacy, emotional, and physical development. Moreover, the KEA practices are believed to be effective with a teacher to student ratio of 1:25, which ensures that it remains in alignment with the state learning standards.
When the kindergarten entry assessments in Massachusetts are compared with those of other states, the results obtained can deduce that the practices are more in Massachusetts than in the rest of the states. For instance, considering the KEA practices in Washington, which the state adopted in 2008, the main objective is to inform teachers, parents, and policymakers about the need of the kindergarteners. The comprehensive list of their needs is obtained through conducting a whole-child assessment within the domains of cognitive ability, physical development, language, socio-emotional relations, and mathematics development (Ackerman, 2020). Further, the KEA practices in the Maryland state define the framework for school readiness, methods of assessments, and learning standards. The state’s practice defines school readiness as the set of activities that a student is able to undertake at the time of joining kindergarten.
While I may not have directly had an experience with the kindergarten entry assessment, my mother, who has been a teacher for over twenty years, shared her experience with me. When she started teaching, educators’ assessments and self-observations were highly considered for documenting a child’s mastery and growth. Teachers used their observations to arrange instructions depending on the needs of the students. In the current assessments, things have changed since teachers are often not allowed to assess their students. Besides, the results obtained are also at times used to evaluate teacher performance.
References
Ackerman, D. J. (2020). The State Kindergarten Entry Assessment Digital Technology Landscape. ETS Research Report Series. 2020(1), 1-32. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ets2.12296
Ackerman, D. J. (2020). Comparing the content of, and home language use policies for six GOLD®-based kindergarten entry assessments. Early Education and Development, 31(5), 676-700. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2020.1722939
Blessing, A. D. (2019). Assessment in Kindergarten: Meeting Children Where They Are. Young Children, 74(3), 117-139. Retrieved 16 March 2021, from https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/jul2019/assessment-in-kindergarten