(The Center Square) — An advisory council convened by the Louisiana Department of Education wants less testing for kindergarteners.
In Wednesday’s meeting, Deputy Chief of Policy Ashley Townsend detailed revisions the Louisiana’s Department of Education Early Childhood and Education Advisory Council wants to make to statewide assessment practices and kindergarten screeners.
Reports released a few weeks ago showed Louisiana now ranks 32nd in education, but the advisory council is still looking to do more. According to the report, fourth graders in Louisiana are No. 1 in the country for reading growth.
The revisions proposed in the meeting agenda are to Bulletin 118, Statewide Assessment Standards and Practices, and Bulletin 741, Louisiana Handbook for School Administrators, regarding kindergarten screeners at the beginning of kindergarten.
Literacy and numeracy will be named as kindergarten screeners to be more in line with Louisiana’s education priorities. These revisions aim to reduce the amount of time teachers and students spend testing. The department seeks ways to remove barriers to provide more effective teaching and learning.
The policy in place for literacy, and soon to be in place for numeracy, requires screeners at the beginning, middle, and end of the year, with parent notification within 15 days of the first screener if a child is found to not be ready for day one.
These screeners are very short, consisting of four one-minute-long questions. Each student will get an individual student plan to target specific areas they need help with.
According to the overview, the starting targets for those beginning kindergarten are phonemic awareness, alphabetic principles, and fluency.
Data from the beginning of year screeners showed that 70% of kindergarteners were not ready for lesson one on the first day. A 20% increase was seen in proficiency from the beginning to the middle, but still, about 50% of students were not ready for lesson 100 on day 100. These revisions will help address concerns early and maximize class time for teachers.
Some had concerns about underprivileged children not doing well with the one screener and are worried about implementing such a big change without having data first to support whether it is effective or not.
Dr. Leigh J. Griffin, executive director of the nonprofit LaForce, said, “We’re telling teachers you have those checkpoints, and we’re using smart teaching, and all of these things are very important, but when they go to kindergarten, we’re only going to check for literacy. I think the work that the teachers have done […] to really look at the whole child should be considered when looking at these things.”
Shenoa Warren, executive director of Early Childhood, agreed with Dr. Jefferson.
“When you’re looking at an environment test such as DRDP-K as well as GOLD KEA, they’re environmental,” Warren said. “The teachers are assessing them in their own environment. DIBELS is a time measured. It is best practice to not administer your own students.”
She noted that a small pilot program would be beneficial for the new screener before moving statewide.
Federal grants have been provided in the past to allow for a more effective screening process, but these do have specific requirements to receive the grant. An attendee noted that in the Child Care and Development Block Grant program, one of the requirements is a developmental screening. This grant helps low-income families pay for child care.
The policy will go into effect next school year if revisions are approved.