Kindergarten Readiness Assessment Update for 2023-24 shows students made gains, came closer to reaching pre-pandemic levels

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release:  July 18, 2024

Kindergarten Readiness Assessment Update for 2023-24 shows students made gains, came closer to reaching pre-pandemic levels

JACKSON, Miss. – The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) released today the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA) results for the 2023-24 school year, which showed students’ gains during the past year have them coming closer to reaching pre-pandemic achievement levels.

Kindergarteners and pre-K students take a Kindergarten Readiness Assessment in the fall and spring of each school year. Historically, in the fall about one-third of kindergarteners score kindergarten-ready on the assessment. When the 2023-24 kindergarteners were retested in spring 2024, 63.8% met the end-of-year target score, an increase from 61.4% in spring 2023. Before the pandemic in spring 2019, 65.6% of kindergartners met the target score.

“Mississippi’s early childhood educators continue to improve achievement among our kindergarten and pre-K students,” said Dr. Lance Evans, state superintendent of education. “The MDE expects this upward trend to continue as we implement strategies and enhance our support for teachers statewide.”

For pre-K students in MDE’s Early Learning Collaboratives (ELC), 67.2% met the end-of-year target score in spring 2024, compared to 64.8% in spring 2023. Before the pandemic in spring 2019, 76.9% of ELC pre-K students met the target score. For pre-K students in other public pre-K programs, 60.8% met the end-of-year target score in spring 2024, compared to 64.5% in spring 2023 and 69.3% in spring 2019.

For the first time, the KRA Update includes results from the State Invested Pre-K (SIP) programs, which began in August 2023. The SIP program expanded MDE’s offering of high-quality pre-K programs and was created after the Mississippi Legislature in 2022 appropriated $20 million in new state funding to provide grants to public schools not participating in an ELC. Results show 64.2% of SIP pre-K students met the target score in spring 2024.    

Total students tested were 32, 736 in kindergarten, 6,193 in ELCs, 891 in SIPs, and 3,999 in other pre-K programs.

The MDE has outlined specific guidance for school districts on ways to improve outcomes. At the agency level, the MDE will implement various strategies such as Science of Reading and Regional Literacy Trainings statewide for paraprofessionals and K-5 teachers, offer coaching about effective interventions to kindergarten and first-grade teachers, and provide professional development on Kindergarten Readiness reports to inform targeted small group instruction.

The Kindergarten Readiness Assessment provides parents, teachers, and early childhood providers with a common understanding of what children know and are able to do upon entering school. Teachers use the results as an instructional baseline to tailor classroom instruction and other services for pre-K and kindergarten students.​ The assessment also measures how well pre-K programs prepare 4-year-old children to be ready for kindergarten.

MDE has contracted with Renaissance Learning to administer the KRA assessments since 2014-15. The contract ended June 30. Today, the State Board of Education approved a contract for Imagination Station, Inc. to administer the assessments beginning in the 2024-25 school year. MDE will work with the new vendor to set the 30-day window for the KRA pre-test for fall 2024.

View the KRA assessment results at mdek12.org/OPR/Reporting/Assessment/2023-24.

Find all MDE news releases at mdek12.org/news.

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