Past and Present

Past and Present

Since 2013, VKRP has expanded from a pilot assessment system in 100 classrooms to a statewide kindergarten assessment system. VKRP also expanded to include all publicly funded pre-kindergarten programs.

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BACKGROUND

How VKRP Began

VKRP was initiated by Elevate Early Education (E3), a statewide bipartisan issue-advocacy organization dedicated to early childhood education. E3, in partnership with the University of Virginia’s Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) and with guidance from the Virginia Department of Education, launched a four-phased approach to create a statewide comprehensive kindergarten assessment. While VKRP began with a focus on assessing skills at kindergarten entry, assessment data and feedback from the field prompted new legislation (HB 129.H) that added timepoints in both the fall and spring of kindergarten and pre-kindergarten.

Timeline of VKRP from 2013 to present

 Kindergarten Timeline

Phase 1: Selecting Assessment Tools

2013-2014
  • VKRP created a more comprehensive kindergarten entry assessment system by adding assessments of mathematics, self-regulation, and social skills.
  • The new assessment system includes and complements the existing assessment of students’ literacy skills — The Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS).

Phase 2: A Snapshot of Kindergarten Readiness

2014-2015
  • Through a pilot study, VKRP created a snapshot of Virginia’s entering kindergarten students with regard to readiness skills across a more comprehensive range of learning domains and clearly defined the school readiness skills gap in Virginia.   
  • The study was conducted across 16 school divisions in Virginia. A sample of students who were representative of the Commonwealth indicated that 34% of children arrived at kindergarten needing extra support in at least one critical learning domain (mathematics, literacy, self-regulation, and social skills). Review the full reports from phase II on our news page.

Phase 3: Voluntary Rollout

2015-2019
  • Beginning in 2015, VKRP started expanding the comprehensive readiness assessment system through a gradual, voluntary rollout. The number of divisions participating in each area increased from 21 school divisions in 2015 to 89 school divisions by the Spring of the 2018- 2019 school year.

Statewide Implementation

2019 and Beyond
  • VKRP is now statewide in kindergarten classrooms. The Virginia General Assembly passed legislation that required all kindergarten students be assessed in the fall and spring using VKRP by the end of the 2019-2020 school year and annually thereafter.
  • During spring 2020 and the 2020-2021 school year, assessments were distributed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual assessment options were developed, and items were added to assess teachers’ perceptions of students’ mental health and well-being in the face of unprecedented disruptions.
  • Currently, 132 school divisions and approximately 90,000 kindergarten students complete the VKRP assessments in both the fall and spring of each year.

 

Graph showing growth of VKRP pilot from 2014-2019. Bars show number of school divisions who adopted VKRP.

FROM PILOT TO STATEWIDE IMPLEMENTATION

VKRP Kindergarten Assessments

From 2014 to 2018, the number of participating school divisions across Virginia increased from 16 to 89.

Starting in 2019, there was statewide implementation of VKRP across all 132 school divisions.

 

Pre-Kindergarten Timeline

Laying the Groundwork

2015-2020
  • Since VKRP began its voluntary rollout in 2015, division leaders, principals, and teachers repeatedly asked for early learning assessments that measure preschool children’s growth over time. 
  • In 2018, the VKRP team began developing a preschool extension of the assessment system. 

Voluntary Pre-kindergarten Pilot

2020-2021
  • Despite disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, In 2020-2021, VKRP implemented a voluntary pilot of VKRP assessments with a sample of Pre-kindergarten classrooms in the fall and spring. 350 classrooms, including more than 4,000 preschoolers within 142 early childhood education programs participated in the pilot. 
  • Although the pilot sample was small relative to Virginia’s public pre-k population and not representative of that population, the results indicated that teachers were able to administer the assessments with high levels of fidelity and that the measures function well for preschool students.

Pre-k Expansion

2021-2022
  • In the 2021-2022 school year, VKRP became available to all publicly funded preschool programs to assess children’s skills in fall and spring.
  • The team developed a downward extension of VKRP for three-year-olds.
 
2022-current
  • VKRP expanded statewide to all publicly funded classrooms (e.g., VPI, VECF Mixed Delivery) serving three- and four-year-olds.

Grades 1-3 Assessment Pilot

School and division leaders, teachers, and families across Virginia have expressed interest in understanding how young students are developing into the early elementary grades and how to better track student growth from pre-kindergarten through the early grades. Currently, there are several gaps in existing assessments. Apart from literacy, there are no statewide assessments that measure students’ early learning in mathematics, self-regulation, social skills, and mental health well-being in grades 1 and 2. Additionally, there are no statewide assessments that track students’ within year and year-to-year growth in these areas from pre-kindergarten through grade 3 until the Virginia Standards of Learning are administered. Currently, school divisions vary in their approach to student assessments in the early elementary grades.

Beginning in fall 2022, VKRP, in partnership with VDOE, began conducting a mathematics, self-regulation, social skills, and mental health well-being assessment pilot in grades 1-3. The purpose of the pilot, required by Virginia’s 2022-2023 Biennial Budget, is to explore the utility of building longitudinal measures of mathematics, self-regulation, social skills, and mental health well-being that could extend into grades 1-3. These measures could complement Virginia’s use of literacy screening in the primary grades administered by Virginia Literacy Partnerships (VLP). At the conclusion of the pilot in spring 2024, VKRP will share a report to VDOE about what VKRP has learned.

Illustration of Grades 1-3 Pilot