The percentage of Mississippi children considered ready for kindergarten dropped during the pandemic, according to data released by the Mississippi Department of Education.
Results of the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment, a test taken in August to evaluate early literacy skills, show 31.8% of children statewide scored kindergarten-ready this year, down from 36.6% in 2019 and 36.1% in 2018. Scores from 2020 were not released.
Locally, Senatobia Elementary School had a scale score average of 478 and 25.6% of its students scored at or above the benchmark of 530, the figure used to determine if children are prepared for kindergarten. The district scored a 482 in 2019 and a 474 in 2018.
The Tate County School District, which has kindergarten students at Coldwater, East Tate and Strayhorn, turned in a scale score average of 458 and 20.9% of its children were considered prepared for kindergarten. TCSD had a score of 471 in 2019 and 456 in 2018.
Individually, Strayhorn topped the district with a score of 479 (31.0%), followed by East Tate at 447 (14.9%), and Coldwater at 444 (15.4%).
“The Kindergarten Readiness Assessment is further proof of the pandemic’s impact on students in the state,” said Carey Wright, state superintendent of education. “Mississippi’s kindergarten teachers are outstanding. Yearly, their hard work leads to significant gains for the state’s youngest students, and I anticipate seeing those gains when students are retested in spring 2022.”
Statewide, the average score was 487 (31.8%) among 33,265 kindergarteners. Results of students scoring kindergarten-ready in previous years were 36.6% in fall 2019 and 36.1% in fall 2018.
The score to be considered ready for kindergarten is 530, which means students can identify most letters of the alphabet, match most letters to their sounds and are building their vocabulary and understanding of print. Research shows 85% of students who score 530 or higher on the assessment at the beginning of kindergarten are proficient in reading at the end of third grade, the department said.
A report uncovered the 2021 Pre-Kindergarten Readiness assessment also showed a decline in preparedness with 13% of four-year-old students tested at or above the threshold, down from nearly 16% in 2019.
The report also showed about 10% of students in other Pre-K programs, such as Title I and special education programs, met state standards. Roughly 14.3% of students met the same standard two years ago.
MDE allowed school districts to test students remotely in fall 2020 due to the pandemic. Districts and schools had access to their own district-level and school-level data to make instructional decisions to improve readiness and growth.
The fall 2020 results were not publicly reported because of concerns with comparability of data from previous years, validity, and test administration flexibilities.
