Kindergarten standardized achievement test (public school, PDA, assessment, grade)

[Immy]

Is there such a thing??

One of the towns I was considering moving to only has a 1/2 day public K and since my husband and I work, we were planning on putting DD into a full day private K.

In looking at the district policy, students seeking admission to first grade who have attended private K must be tested by a staff or submit a state approved standardized achievement test.

This is my first child so I'm quite ignorant but they test Kindergarters??

[lisdol]

Our school uses DIBELS for reading for K-2 and for math I think the name of it is MAP and I think they start at the end of Kinder or beginning of 1st for math - don't quote me on the name though. Its on a pda and the teacher tests each student individually and the results are recorded and downloaded to the computer.

The DIBELS helps them group the kids for reading/LA level groups and the Math is just for tracking progress and identifying problem areas - the kids are not tracked into level groups for math in our school.

My guess is they just want to know where to place your child and its not much different from what they do with the rest of the class.

[bigcats]

I'm a public school K teacher. We use RESULTS for Language Arts assessment in my district, and the benchmark math tests that come with the particular curriculum we use - each basically tests math content up to that point in the year. They're administered quarterly, right before I do report cards.

The RESULTS are done orally 1:1. I usually do the Math Benchmarks in small groups (3-4 kids with me) except for the first quarter, which is also 1:1. Of course, I read the directions to them for it. Oh, we do a writing benchmark test too - that we do whole group though I meet with kids 1:1 if I can't decipher their work by myself

The RESULTS in particular is very valuable info for the first grade teacher and does seem (to me) to correlate very strongly with reading level in first grade and beyond. We use the info to mix the classes up for next year, for the next year's teacher to plan curriculum that addresses her students' needs, etc. Also, throughout the year I'm always using my assessment results to plan small groups for kids who need help with particular skills. The most interesting use in my opinion is to track progress throughout the year.

I would guess they're just going to give the same assessment they give to the public school end-of-the-year K's. I actually did one today on a preschool student who might move straight into first grade.

The kindergarten grade has standards that must be met just like any other grade. So it follows that assessments that measure those standards (we hope) are given.

[hypocore]

When I was in a child care center, we had a private Kindergarten.

For students who finished our Kindergarten to be able to enter 1st grade in a public school, they had to have a report card from us that showed their level of completion just like they would have to have if they had moved from one public school to another. Our report card was actually more specific in what it covered than most K report cards, so rarely did we ever need to furnish anything else.

There were times the schools still wanted to assess the student to make sure they were indeed ready to enter 1st grade, and that typically was the same assessment a K teacher in their school would have completed at the end of the year.

So, basically if your child goes through a private Kindergarten, they should come out with a similar type assessment and/or report card that would support their ability to move into 1st grade. If the school wants to assess them further, it won't be a standardized test that all Kindergarten students take, but something the school has chosen to use.