Calling all school divisions! UVA CASTL is recruiting school districts to participate in Virginia’s Kindergarten Readiness Project (VKRP) this fall! See below for an announcement from UVA CASTL with all the details:
In the fall 2014, sixteen school divisions partnered with UVA & E3 in piloting an expanded assessment of children’s kindergarten readiness skills, to compliment the PALS. We found that 34% of children in the Commonwealth arrive at kindergarten unprepared in one or more critical learning domains (literacy, math, self-regulation, and social skills). These results were reported to the Virginia State Legislature (the executive summary is available here), who then allocated funding to begin statewide implementation of an expanded assessment (Read more here).
Last fall, 21 school divisions partnered with UVA for the rollout of the VKRP expanded assessment of children’s kindergarten readiness skills, in addition to PALS. Having a purposely small number of participating divisions allowed them to seek extensive feedback from teachers, administrators, and other school division stakeholders on what they needed from an expanded assessment.
For the 2016-17 school year, VKRP will again be working with a relatively small number of school divisions (about 40 school divisions) to continue to work closely with teachers and administrators to gather feedback on implementation and usefulness of the system.
We look forward to welcoming more divisions to VKRP! Your kindergarten teachers will receive, at no cost to the division, training and all materials needed to administer the direct assessment of mathematics (the Early Mathematics Assessment System (EMAS), also known as the Birthday Party) and to complete the social skills and self-regulation rating scale (the Child Behavior Rating Scale (CBRS). Both assessment measures are programmed into an online application that will provide teachers with reports at the classroom and individual student level. Instructional resources will be recommended based on classroom and student data and presented through a teacher’s “My Resources” page.
Please complete the information form at the link below, and UVA will contact you to provide more information about participation. Please let UVA hear from you quickly, as participation is limited. Click here to sign up today!
Questions? Email Wanda Weaver at wlw6n@virginia.edu.