The Mississippi Department of Education on July 27 released the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment Update for the 2022-23 school year, which showed students made gains during the past year, coming closer to reaching pre-pandemic achievement levels.
The percentage of kindergarteners scoring kindergarten ready in spring 2023 in the Webster County School District was higher than the state average. The percentage of pre-K students meeting the end-of-year target score last spring was also higher than the state average.
Kindergarteners and pre-K students take a Kindergarten Readiness Assessment in the fall and spring of each school year. In fall 2022, 34.9% of kindergarteners statewide scored kindergarten ready. When they were retested in spring 2023, 61.4% met the end-of-year target score, an increase over 57.7% in spring 2022. Before the pandemic in spring 2019, 65.6% of kindergartners met the target score.
In fall 2022, 28% of Webster County School District kindergarteners scored kindergarten ready. When they were retested in spring 2023, 70.4% met the end-of-year target score, an increase over 65.7% in spring 2022.
At the individual elementary schools, 29.2% of Eupora kindergarteners and 26.9% of East Webster kindergarteners scored kindergarten ready in fall 2022. When they were retested last spring, 65.6% met the end-of-year target score at Eupora, a decrease from 68.2% in spring 2022. At East Webster, 75% met the end-of-year target last spring, an increase over 63.7 % in spring 2022.
“The gains made among the state’s youngest students speak to the effectiveness of early childhood educators to intervene and accelerate learning and the impact of the state’s investment into these programs,” said Dr. Ray Morgigno, interim state superintendent of education. “The MDE is committed to giving teachers additional support to produce continued growth.”
For pre-K students in public pre-K programs not in MDE’s Early Learning Collaboratives, 64.5% met the end-of-year target score in spring 2023, compared to 61.5% in spring 2022 and 69.3% in spring 2019.
For pre-K students in the WCSD, which is not an ELC school system, 72.3% met the end-of-year target score in spring 2023, compared to 51.8% in spring 2022. At Eupora Elementary, 73.9% met the end-of-year target score in spring 2023 (55.1% in 2022) and 70.8% did so at East Webster (48.1% in 2o22).
The number of students tested in non-ELC pre-K programs dropped to 4,914 in spring 2023 from 6,112 in spring 2022.
The MDE has outlined specific guidance for school districts on ways to improve outcomes. At the agency level, the MDE will implement various strategies such as Science of Reading and Regional Literacy Trainings statewide for paraprofessionals and K-5 teachers, offer coaching about effective interventions to kindergarten and first-grade teachers, and provide professional development on Kindergarten Readiness reports to inform targeted small group instruction.
The Kindergarten Readiness Assessment provides parents, teachers, and early childhood providers with a common understanding of what children know and are able to do upon entering school. Teachers use the results as an instructional baseline to tailor classroom instruction and other services for pre-K and kindergarten students. The assessment also measures how well pre-K programs prepare 4-year-old children to be ready for kindergarten.
