Released Monday, August 13, 2018, data from the Kindergarten Individual Development Survey (KIDS) will provide the first consistent picture across all Illinois School Districts, of the skills children have as they enter kindergarten. Opportunity gaps emerge well before kindergarten. KIDS will help educators, communities, families, and policymakers to identify the learning supports children need–not just during kindergarten, but in the years before.
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) began requiring all Illinois kindergarten teachers to use the tool in Fall 2017, after piloting the tool for five years in districts around the State. Within the first 40 days of school, teachers observe and collect data, for 14 required measures, as students go about their daily classroom routines. Students “demonstrate kindergarten readiness” if they display the skills, knowledge, and behavior needed for kindergarten-level learning. These skills run across three developmental areas:
- social and emotional development
- language and literacy
- math.
Students displaying the skills, knowledge, and behavior needed in less-than-three developmental areas “need additional support.”
While the benchmark year of data should be reviewed accordingly, this first year of Statewide KIDS data reveals a wide range in the skills, knowledge, and behavior of children entering kindergarten. In 2017, of the 106,670 kindergarten students in Illinois (81%) rated on the 14 required measures:
- 24 percent demonstrated readiness in all three developmental areas
- 18 percent reached readiness in two developmental areas
- 17 percent reached readiness in one developmental area
- 42 percent did not reach readiness in any developmental areas
- 49 percent of students demonstrated readiness in social and emotional development
- 44 percent of students demonstrated readiness in language and literacy
- 30 percent of students demonstrated readiness in math.
Black and Hispanic or Latino students in Illinois entered kindergarten with lower rates of readiness than their Asian and White peers:
- 32% of Asian kindergarteners demonstrated readiness
- 29% of Pacific Islander kindergarteners demonstrated readiness
- 29% of White kindergarteners demonstrated readiness
- 25% of Multi-race students demonstrated readiness
- 21% of Native American students demonstrated readiness
- 19% of Black students demonstrated readiness
- 13% of Hispanic or Latino students demonstrated readiness.
Students who receive additional support through other State and District programs, including Individual Education Plans (IEP’s), free and reduced price meals, and identification as an English Learner, are entering kindergarten behind the State average:
- 11% of kindergarteners with an IEP demonstrated readiness
- 15% of kindergarteners identified as an English Learner (EL) demonstrated readiness
- 16% of kindergarteners enrolled in free and reduced-price lunch, which requires low-income eligibility, demonstrated readiness.
KIDS data highlights the importance of strong early childhood programs. It pinpoints the early grades in a child’s long-term success. It represents a critical milestone toward understanding what we need to do, to support students earlier in their learning journey.
Additionally, with this fall’s implementation of the new Every Student Succeeds Act (replacing No Child Left Behind), every District will need to define new practices–for improving student outcomes across the entire educational continuum.
This inaugural release of KIDS survey data can be used to strengthen and connect the learning that happens in early childhood programs into kindergarten and the early elementary grades.
“Readiness Matters” a Statewide report, provides additional information about the KIDS 2017 data. Visit www.isbe.net/KIDS to learn more.