1. Minnesota School Readiness Study
Developmental Assessment at Kindergarten Entrance
Fall 2010
November 2010

2. Kindergarten
What must a child be or do in order to enter Kindergarten?
According to statute:
Must be 5 years old on September 1st of the current year
Must have received early childhood screening
Must be up to date on immunizations
November 2010

3. What does early childhood research say?
If a child starts school developmentally behind it is increasingly more difficult for the child to reach grade level expectations.
Research shows a critical relationship between early childhood experiences and later academic success.
November 2010

4. Minnesota Early Childhood Advisory Council (ECAC)
Goal: Ensure that by 2020, all Minnesota children are school-ready as they enter kindergarten.
In order to maximize children’s potential, children must be ready for schools and schools must be ready for children
Minnesota Statute 124D.141 provides additional detail on the Early Childhood Advisory Council.
The High Scope Foundation offers a tool for a fee to assess a school’s readiness for children. The tool can be used with school’s continuous improvement planning process.
November 2010

5. What is the purpose of the Study?
To have the results of the Minnesota School Readiness Study inform the public of the progress towards the goal of ensuring children are ready for school.
To have the results used in a manner that promotes children’s learning and development by improving early childhood programs and services up to Grade 3.
November 2010

6. What is School Readiness?
Readiness in the Child
School’s readiness for children
Family and community supports and services that contribute to children’s readiness
Follows the definition set by the National Education Goals Panel.
November 2010

7. Minnesota’s Definition of School Readiness
The skills, knowledge, behaviors and accomplishments that children know and can do as they enter school.
Physical well-being and motor development
Social and emotional development
Approaches to learning
Language development
Cognition and general knowledge
Creativity and the arts
November 2010

8. Assessing Young Children
Young children develop and grow along a continuum and with great variability
This fact highlights the importance
of using authentic assessment:
Fair to all children
Uses familiar tasks
Conducted in familiar settings
Based on multiple sources
Continuous and ongoing to show progress
Assessment aligned with Minnesota’s Early Learning Standards and K-12 Standards
November 2010

9. Recommended Practices for Assessing Young Children
Written recommendations
The American Educational Research Association
The National Association for School Psychologists
The National Association for the Education of Young Children
The National Education Goal Panel
These recommendations have a research evidence base and reflect the concepts that assessments of young children is appropriate, beneficial and useful if used as intended
November 2010

10. Work Sampling System Standards based observational assessment
Three Ratings
Proficient- reliably demonstrates the skills, knowledge or behaviors
In Process- demonstrates the skills, knowledge or behaviors intermittently, not consistently
Not Yet- has not begun to demonstrate the skills, knowledge or behaviors
There is no “Not Ready” or “Ready” score
November 2010

11. Insert School Name – Fall 2010
Domain/Result
Not Yet
In Process
Proficient
Physical Development %
The Arts
Personal & Social Development
Language & Literacy
Mathematical Thinking
Enter results from Work Sampling Online here. Sites may also want to add demographic information describing their entering kindergarten cohorts and trends over time.
Click insert new slide here if your site has prior years results as well that you would like to compare. Simply duplicate this slide and change the heading to add additional years.
Note state resources do not exist to determine whether local results year to year are outside the margin of error. In other words, changes in local years information may or may not be statistically significant. Other local information may provide additional evidence to the importance of the differences in results between years. If student population size are similar between years, as well as student demographics, especially indicators of household income, that lends evidence towards differences being more likely to be significant.
November 2010

12. State Fall 2009 Cohort 6,392 Kindergartners
Anticipating Fall 2010 results in April 2011
Domain/Result
Not Yet
In Process
Proficient
Physical Development 3%
32%
65%
The Arts 6%
42%
53%
Personal & Social Development 8%
39%
Language & Literacy
10%
40%
51%
Mathematical Thinking 9%
49%
Note that categories may not add to 100% due to rounding
and are adjusted for stratified cluster sampling.
November 2010

13. State results over the years
- Not outside the margin of error (see slide 16)
- Outside of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for Head Start and Early Head Start there is no large scale change in early childhood education funding from state and federal sources from 2002 to 2009.
November 2010

14. State results over the years
November 2010

15. State results over the years
November 2010

16. State results over the years
All changes are within the margin of error between years
Note the persistent level of children not yet demonstrating commonly held expectations for children completing their fourth year of life
November 2010

17. State Level Regression Analysis
The regression determines the impact of a change in one characteristic while holding all other characteristics constant.
For example, the regression will determine the additional impact on changes in federal poverty level if parent education, home language, race/ethnicity and gender are not changed.
November 2010

18. State Level Regression Results
Higher household income increased the likelihood of
In Process or Proficient in all domains
Parent education level was found to be statistically significant in Physical Development and Health only
Primary home language was not found to be statistically significant in any of the domains
Students of color statistically had better odds of being In Process or Proficient as compared to White students in The Arts domain
Gender continues to be a statistically significant factor
in all domains
Regression results across years of the study are available in the technical report from Copy and paste this link.
Note – NCLB reports descriptive results, reporting on only one characteristic at a time, where this report uses a logistic regression.
November 2010

19. Human Capital Research Collaborative
The Human Capital Research Collaborative (HCRC), coordinated by the University of Minnesota and the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, fosters multidisciplinary research on child development and social policy from birth through young adulthood.

20. Arthur Reynolds Dr. Arthur Reynolds, University of Minnesota
Co-Director of Human Capital Research
Collaborative and Professor of Child
Development
Director of the Chicago Longitudinal Study, one of the largest and most extensive studies of the effects of early childhood intervention. The project tracks the life-course development of 1,500 children who attended early childhood programs in inner-city Chicago.
HCRC, through Dr. Reynolds’ leadership and his team of research assistants, partnered with the Minnesota Department of Education to better understand how children enter and move through school.
November 2010

21. HCRC/MDE Partnership Results
Following multiple cohorts from kindergarten entry through the end of Grade 3 to better understand the relationship between the Work Sampling System (WSS) scores and MCA results
In the fall of 2010, the HCRC research team provided technical assistance and conducted the analysis.
Results in brief follow, a full report is anticipated by winter 2011.

22. How well are children who are proficient or not at kindergarten entry achieving in 3rd grade?
Kindergarteners who were proficient at kindergarten entry in the domain of Language and Literacy and separately the domain of Mathematical Thinking were consistently more likely to be proficient on MCA reading and math tests as well as less likely to be in special education or to have been retained by 3rd grade.
Proficiency in Dr. Reynolds’ work is at 75% of total possible points in a domain. This is very similar to but not exactly the same as the existing definition of proficiency in Work Sampling Online.
November 2010

23. 3rd Grade Reading Performance by Kindergarten Proficiency (K in 2006, 3rd in 2010)
K Proficient K Not Proficient
3rd grade (75% standard) (< 75% of total)
Partially or not meet 14% 33%
Meets proficiency 20% 27%
Exceeds proficiency 66% 40%
Meets or exceeds 86% 67%
This same information is portrayed in a chart o the next slide.
November 2010

24. 2006: MWSS Proficiency at 75% Proficiency by 3rd Grade MCA Reading
How well are children who are proficient on MWSS achieving in 3rd grade compared to those who are not proficient?
2006: MWSS Proficiency at 75% Proficiency by 3rd Grade MCA Reading
This chart states that for children assessed proficient in language and literacy at kindergarten entry, 66% exceed, 20% meet and 14% partially or does not meet the Grade 3 MCA standards. Similarly, for children assessed not proficient (mostly in process and not yet), 40% exceed, 27% meet and 33% partially or does not met Grade 3 MCA standards.
One can see the impact of K-3 services from kindergarten entry to Grade 3 MCAs as a majority of children assessed not yet at kindergarten entry do meet or exceed Grade 3 MCAs. At the same time, there is a significant portion of children for whom existing interventions are not working. K-3 interventions need to continue and be revised to meet each year’s needs.
Simultaneously, there are cost effective benefits to be gained through reviewing early childhood practices and partnerships within the district (ECFE and School Readiness) and with other local partners including Head Start and child care providers. National research has identified a positive return on investment of targeted, high quality preschool services. For more information, see
November 2010

25. What about fadeout of preschool services?
In addition to improving early childhood options for children, it is imperative that preschool gains are maintained through Grade 3.
Sites that have coordinated Age 3 to Grade 3 services do not see fadeout. Gains from preschool are maintained.
November 2010

26. Age 3 to Grade 3 Website
Created to coordinate resources for Minnesota schools exploring and implementing preschool services integrated with elementary
schools’ enhanced practices through Grade 3.
This is a free website that will be coordinating national, state and local resources describing options on how to implement improved age 3 to Grade 3 programming in districts.
As you use the website, please let us know what additional information or supports may help. Contact Avisia Whiteman at for information.
November 2010

27. State Recommendations from 2009 Study
Continue to support parents in their role as children’s first teachers
Focus on improving children’s early language and literacy and math skills
Continue to examine the impact of parent education on children’s school readiness
Target intervention strategies to children not yet demonstrating proficiency in at least one developmental domain
November 2010

28. State Recommendations Reccommendations from 2009 Study, Continued
Continue to work toward improving school readiness opportunities
Continue to work toward improving the quality of early childhood education and care programs in Minnesota
Promote use of school readiness information as school district and community leaders work together to identify the best practices and support children’s transition to kindergarten
November 2010

29. Potential Next Steps
Considering the strengths of our local programs, what is a potential next step to improve our effectiveness in transitioning children from preschool sites into kindergarten and through Grade 3?
What are steps to strengthen the relationship between district programs and programs outside the district?
What are potential roles for appointed/elected leadership, district staff, teachers and external partners?
What is the timeline for a review of results of strategies?

30. Comments & Questions For further information, contact:
[Enter Principal/Superintendent
Information] Or
MDE - Early Learning Services