Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Program

Past and Present

Since 2013, VKRP has expanded from a pilot assessment system in 100 classrooms to a statewide kindergarten assessment system. VKRP has also expanded to include all publicly funded pre-kindergarten programs and is currently conducting an assessment pilot in Grades 1 through 3. Starting fall 2025, VKRP has become part of VAConnects for Kids (VAConnects), an integrated data system that includes VKRP, the Virginia Language & Literacy Screening System (VALLSS) and LinkB5.

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 (VDOE), 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 time points in both the fall and spring of kindergarten and pre-kindergarten, with an optional mid-year assessment time point. In addition to a state-wide kindergarten and pre-kindergarten implementation, a pilot assessment of mathematics, self-regulation, and mental health well-being assessments is underway for Grades 1 to 3. In 2025-2026, VKRP joined two other statewide initiatives, LinkB5 and the Virginia Language & Literacy Screening System, in an integrated data system, VAConnects for Kids (VAConnects).
A timeline with VKRP dates and milestones from 2013 to today. Milestones in the timeline are described in the text below.

VKRP in Kindergarten – A Timeline

Phase 1: Selecting Assessment Tools

2013-2014
  • VKRP added assessments of mathematics, self-regulation, and social skills to create a more comprehensive kindergarten entry assessment system.
  • The new assessment system complemented 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 the readiness skills of students entering kindergarten in Virginia, across a more comprehensive range of learning domains. The snapshot clearly defined the school readiness skills gap in Virginia.   
    • The pilot 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 VKRP News page.
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Phase 3: Voluntary Rollout

2015-2019
  • Beginning in 2015-2016, 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 2015-2016 to 89 school divisions by spring 2019.

Statewide Implementation

2019-2020
  • 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.

Covid 19 Disruptions

2020-2022
  • During spring 2020 and the 2020-2021 school year, assessments were disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • VKRP developed a virtual assessment option.
  • VKRP added items to assess teachers’ perceptions of students’ mental health and well-being.

Continued Statewide Implementation and Improvements

2022-present
  • In 2024-2025, VKRP added an optional mid-year assessment time point.
  • In 2024-2025, VLP implemented the Virginia Language & Literacy Screener: Kindergarten (VALLS:K) to replace the PALS-K assessment.
  • Currently, all 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 Virginia school divisions participating in the VKRP pilot from 2014-2019 - 16 divisions in 2014, 21 divisions in 2015, 45 divisions in 2016, 64 divisions in 2017, 89 divisions in 2018, and 132 divisions in 2019.

FROM PILOT TO STATEWIDE IMPLEMENTATION

VKRP Kindergarten Assessments

From 2014-2015 to 2018-2019, 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.

 

VKRP in Pre-Kindergarten – A Timeline

Laying the Groundwork

2015-2020
  • Since VKRP’s voluntary kindergarten rollout in 2015-2016, division leaders, principals, and teachers repeatedly asked for early learning assessments that measure preschool children’s growth over time.
  • In 2018-2019, 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, 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-kindergarten 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-kindergarten Expansion

2021-2022
  • In the 2021–2022 school year, VKRP became available to all publicly-funded pre-kindergarten programs to assess 4-year-old children’s skills in the fall and spring.
  • VKRP developed a 3-year-old extension of VKRP, which became available to all publicly-funded pre-kindergarten programs to assess 3-year-old children’s skills in the 2022-2023 school year.
  • In 2022-2023, VLP implemented the Virginia Language & Literacy Screener: Pre-K (VALLS: Pre-K) to replace the PALS Pre-K assessment.
2023 to present
  • VKRP is required for 3- and 4-year-old pre-kindergarten children in publicly-funded programs in the fall and spring (HB6001, Item 117, H.), with an optional mid-year assessment time point.

 

Grades 1-3 Assessment Pilot – Background and Timeline

Background

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 the language and literacy assessments used across Virginia (VALLSS), 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.

A sequence of grades from PreK to 12th grade that shows a gap of state math assessment data during grades 1 and 2 -indicated by empty circles instead of filled ones. The data highlights how VKRP's pilot assessment for grades 1-3 to fill in gaps to track growth and better understand students' development in the early elementary grades beyond literacy.
 

Assessment Pilot Begins

2022-Current
  • 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 and 2024-2026 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 the statewide language and literacy screening tool (VALLSS).

 

Moving to an Integrated Data System

Background

VKRP has moved into Virginia Connects for Kids (VAConnects). VAConnects is an integrated data system that brings together three state data collection systems, Virginia Language & Literacy Screening System (VALLSS), the Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Program (VKRP), and LinkB5. Collectively, these three initiatives impact almost every child in a publicly-funded program ages birth through third grade in Virginia as well as fourth through eighth graders who need additional assistance. Users are able to access VALLSS, VKRP, and LinkB5 with one login and integrated data entry.

Virginia Connects for Kids (VAConnects)

2024-Current
  • In fall 2024-2025, VAConnects was launched. Educators in every division used VAConnects for data entry and reporting for VALLSS.
  • In fall 2025-2026, the system expanded to include VKRP and LinkB5 in one platform with a one-stop login for all three systems.