Because all children have unique backgrounds and experiences prior to entering kindergarten, all South Carolina kindergarten teachers will administer the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA) during the first 45 days of the 2017-18 school year in an effort to understand their students as an individual learners. The assessment will be unobtrusive, and not interrupt instruction, but will allow teachers to provide better service to students.
All kindergarten students enrolled in Aiken County Public Schools will participate in the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment, which will begin August 28, 2017, and end in late October.
“We are thrilled the state has adopted the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment for all kindergarten students in South Carolina,” stated Aiken County Public Schools Director of Assessment and Accountability, Kate Olin. “Information the assessment provides will offer a comprehensive view of a student’s readiness for kindergarten instruction and provide the foundation for teachers to meet the individual learning needs of each student.”
Teachers and literacy coaches in our District will receive extensive training on all aspects of the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment. They will use assessment’s tools to measure a student’s knowledge and abilities in four key areas: Social Foundations, Language and Literacy, Mathematics, and Physical Well-Being and Motor Development.
The assessment neither will rank students by ability, nor identify gifted or challenged students. Rather, using the assessment tool, teachers will better understand students in a way that does not interrupt daily learning. It is likely students may not even be aware a teacher is conducting the assessment, as it simply requires the teacher to conduct class as normal and observe the student during the natural course of school day activities.
Three ways a student will be able to show what he or she knows and is able to do will include selecting an answer to a question the teacher asks, performing a requested task and teacher observations during normal school activities and assignments.
“The majority of the assessment is grounded in a teacher’s everyday observations, and will include routines such as asking children for responses to simple prompts and setting up activities for children to show what they know and what they can do,” Olin added.
The information collected from the assessment will be mutually beneficial for families and teachers in partnership to help students succeed in kindergarten, and will be shared during Parent/Teacher Conferences in October. Parents will also receive a Kindergarten Readiness Assessment Individual Student Report for their student(s) later in the school year.
“The assessment is designed for all students, and the 45-day assessment period will allow them to display what they have learned during the first weeks of instruction,” Olin commented. “If they cannot do something one week, they will often do it just a few short weeks later.”
For additional information on the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment, please visit online at www.acpsd.net/OAA and click on Student & Parent Resources in the left-hand column.
LINK TO DISTRICT PRESS RELEASE: 2017 PR KINDERGARTEN READINESS ASSESSMENT