Moving Kindergarten Entry Assessments from Policy to Practice Evidence from North Carolina

Abstract

ABSTRACT Research Findings Kindergarten Entry Assessments (KEAs) – assessment tools used at the beginning of kindergarten to provide educators with a snapshot of children’s readiness for school – are increasingly being adopted by states across the country. The purpose of this study is to examine the implementation of North Carolina’s KEA through analysis of data from an exploratory qualitative study during the initial years of implementation (2015-2018). We conducted interviews with state- and county-level administrators as well as kindergarten teachers. Our findings focus on the intervention itself, the process of data use, the organization and political context surrounding implementation, and potential outcomes of the KEA. Policy and Practice: Implications for policy and practice are identified, including the need to design KEAs to cover a holistic range of domains, for professional development to focus on use of data in addition to collection of data, and for KEA implementation to embed principles of continuous improvement.