Kindergarten Assessment

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Kindergarten Assessment

• Karen Addesso
• Bureau of Student Assessment

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Why does Connecticut have a Fall Kindergarten
Entrance Inventory?

• The Inventory was developed to comply with state
  legislation that was passed in 2005, and
  originally due October 1, 2009.
• The 2007 Legislative Session amended Section 18
  with (h) Within available appropriations, the
  Commissioner of Education shall, not later than
  October 1, 2007, develop and implement a
  state-wide developmentally appropriate
  kindergarten assessment tool that measures a
  childs preparedness for kindergarten, but shall
  not be used as a measurement tool for program
  accountability pursuant to section 10-16s, as
  amended by the act.
• The Inventory has been administered in October
  2007 and October 2008.

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What is the Purpose of the Fall Kindergarten
Entrance Inventory?

• The Fall Kindergarten Entrance Inventory was
  developed to provide kindergarten teachers,
  administrators and other stakeholders with
  aggregated information about the level of skills
  and behaviors that students exhibit at the
  beginning of kindergarten.

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What is the Purpose of the Fall Kindergarten
Entrance Inventory?

• The results of the Inventory are also used as a
  population indicator for the Results-Based
  Accountability framework. The framework is used
  to provide information to the legislature at the
  population, system and program level.

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Fall Kindergarten Entrance Inventory Development

• This instrument was designed to provide a
  statewide snapshot of the skills and behaviors
  students demonstrate, based on teachers
  observations, at the beginning of the
  kindergarten year (mid-October).
• The Fall Inventory covers six domains of early
  childhood development.
• Each domain is defined by a series of indicators.

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Fall Kindergarten Entrance Inventory Development

• The indicators on the Inventory reflect the state
  curriculum framework and the standards for the
  beginning of the kindergarten year.
• A committee of preschool and kindergarten
  teachers reviewed the indicators and provided the
  Department of Education with recommendations on
  their appropriateness.

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Fall Kindergarten Entrance Inventory Development

• Includes Six Domains of Early Childhood
  Development
• Language Skills
• Literacy Skills
• Numeracy Skills
• Physical/Motor Skills
• Creative/Aesthetic Skills
• Personal/Social Skills

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Performance Level Descriptors

• Performance Level 1 Students at this level
  demonstrate emerging skills in the specified
  domain and require a large degree of
  instructional support.
• Performance Level 2 Students at this level
  inconsistently demonstrate the skills in the
  specified domain and require some instructional
  support.
• Performance Level 3 Students at this level
  consistently demonstrate the skills in the
  specified domain and require minimal
  instructional support.

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Classifying Student Performance

• Teachers classify each of the students in their
  class(es) into one of three performance levels
  for each domain.
• Every student in the class is classified into a
  performance level under each domain no student
  is exempt from being rated.
• Teachers are trained to focus on the criterion or
  indicators and not to group students within the
  class as high, middle, or low.

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Data Collection Method

• Teachers log in to a secure website to enter
  their student ratings.
• Each school has a unique login and password to
  access a webpage that lists each student name for
  the school.
• The teacher ratings are linked to each students
  SASID to connect with other student-level
  information also collected by SDE.

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How are Special Education Students Assessed?

• Students who have an IEP and have been given
  accommodations are assessed within their
  communication mode.
• Designated communication modes are Braille, sign
  language, voice recognition technology, etc.

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How are ELL Students Assessed?

• Students are assessed using their native language
  whenever possible.
• Teachers are directed to make judgments about
  students who do not speak English by observing
  student behaviors.

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How will the Results of the Fall Kindergarten
Exit Inventory be used?

• The Inventory results are used to describe
  kindergarten students across the state using a
  standardized approach.
• The results are aggregated to the district and
  state levels, grouping students into three
  performance levels by domain.
• Statewide results were presented by the Early
  Childhood Cabinet to the CT Legislature in 2009
  as an indicator of Entry to Kindergarten
  Readiness.

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Data Analysis and Reporting

• The 2008 data consists of 40, 258 students,
  representing 99 of the total statewide public
  school kindergarten student population.
• Example of a district-level report has been
  provided.
• Graphs used by the Early Childhood Cabinet
  follow.

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Reporting Graph for RBA Population Indicator
Indicator 4 2007 and 2008 Skill Assessment of
Entering Kindergartners
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Reporting Graph for RBA Population Indicator
Indicator 5 Snapshot of Entry to K Teacher
Ratings by Domain
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Another View Not Currently Used
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Challenges and Lessons Learned

• Communicating the limitations of the data to
  legislators and other stakeholders.
• Using the results of the Inventory
  (teacher-observed assessment) for accountability
  purposes and/or for more than one purpose.
• Investigating questions about reliability and
  validity.

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Current Work

• Teacher observation tools have primarily been
  used for formative assessment and to inform
  teaching and instruction.
• The Inventory is a teacher observation tool that
  is used for accountability purposes.
• Limited reliability and validity evidence is
  available on using teacher observation tools for
  the accountability purposes.

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Reliability of the Kindergarten Inventory Results

• Principal Components Analysis yielded one factor
  (measuring one domain, not six). What is this
  domain??
• Internal consistency is good, Cronbachs alpha
  .914. Pearson Correlations between items are all
  above .5, also evidence of good internal
  consistency.
• Inter-rater reliability cannot be studied by SDE
  due to implementation and administration
  limitations. This is of great concern when using
  results for accountability purposes.

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Validity of the Kindergarten Inventory Results

• Currently looking for districts that may
  administer other standardized assessments at the
  beginning of kindergarten to investigate
  concurrent validity.
• There is no evidence to show that Inventory
  results would be predictive of Grade 3 CMT
  results. In fact we would hope that they arent!

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Links to Information

• The Fall Kindergarten Entrance Inventory
  instrument, Teacher Handbook, Data Collection
  form, Training module, and directions for
  entering data online are available at the State
  Department of Education website at
  http//www.csde.state.ct.us/public/cedar/assessmen
  t/kindergarten/fall07.htm

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Contact Information

• Karen Addesso, Education Consultant, CSDE
• By email _at_ karen.addesso_at_ct.gov or by telephone _at_
  [phone].
• THANK YOU!!