Kindergarten Readiness Locally

A new State survey painted a bleak picture of kindergarten readiness. From the News-Gazette yesterday.

ISBE survey shows just 1 in 4 kids ready for kindergarten
The results of the Illinois State Board of Education's first survey of kindergarten readiness weren't exactly heartening, but they appeared to confirm what educators already knew:

What children do before coming to kindergarten matters.

The Kindergarten Individual Development Survey (KIDS) collected "readiness" data on 81 percent of kindergartners across the state via teachers who observed them over the first 40 days of the 2017-18 school year.

For ISBE, kindergartners "demonstrating readiness" meant that such "students have displayed the skills, knowledge and behaviors for all three developmental areas" — language/literacy, math and social/emotional development.

Statewide, only 24 percent of kindergartners met that criteria.

Among the statistics for local schools:

— In Unit 4, 22 percent of surveyed kindergartners demonstrated readiness in all three areas.

— In both the Urbana and Danville districts, 16 percent surveyed were considered ready in the three areas.

— Hoopeston Area and Westville both reported 25 percent readiness in the three areas.

— Bement (52 percent) and Tuscola (50) were on the high end. Arcola (9 percent) was on the low end.

The data could also be broken down by whether students receive free or reduced-price lunches. Overall, the survey showed that students who weren't on either plan tended to score higher than those who were.

More at the full article here. The News-Gazette also had an editorial on their concerns with such low readiness numbers here with a couple cautions:

It's important to note that the determination is not based on testing but on observing students in the classroom for the first 40 days of school. Their teachers watched as children performed such tasks as adding and subtracting small quantities, identifying letters and numbers and working in small groups.

And since this is the first year of the assessments, there's no way to compare with past evaluations, nor is there any kind of a national standard to see how well or poorly Illinois students rank.

 They recommend some positive steps to take at home, but admit that even noting the shortcomings of the data, the picture it paints is "discouraging."