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Language: en

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>>The Maryland State
Department of Education's

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Ready for Kindergarten
initiative has a simple

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purpose - to improve
outcomes for young

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children and shape early
childhood education.

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In fact, children who
enter kindergarten at

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higher levels of readiness
are more likely to succeed

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academically throughout
their school careers,

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as well as later in life.

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In 2011, Maryland was
awarded a Race to the Top

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Early Learning
Challenge grant.

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With those funds, and
together with the state of

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Ohio, kindergarten entry
assessments were revised

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and enhanced.

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The Kindergarten Readiness
Assessment was designed to

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help teachers to measure
each child's school

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readiness across
multiple areas,

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which come directly from
the Maryland Pre-K to

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College Career
Readiness Standards.

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These areas include
social foundations,

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language and literacy,
mathematics,

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physical
well-being and motor development.

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This is not a
pencil-and-paper

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assessment.

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The Kindergarten Readiness
Assessment rests on

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teachers' observations of
childrens' work and play

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to build a detailed
picture of what they need

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as they begin
the school year.

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The assessment items
come from skills,

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knowledge and behaviors
that students should have

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learned during their
4-year-old year.

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Children are assessed on
many traditional classroom

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activities, such as
cutting out a shape,

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counting, selecting
an object,

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taking turns or completing
activities on a tablet.

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Teachers will use a
standardized paper or

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electronic rubric to score
students' readiness based

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on their observations.

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Once the assessment
is complete,

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the information is entered
into a database so the

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teacher can look at it
on both the individual

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student level and
for the entire class.

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The Kindergarten Readiness
Assessment is a tool meant

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to inform teachers,
parents and administrators

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on the readiness gaps
so that they can be

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addressed.

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The data collected will be
used for three purposes -

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to provide teachers with
information about their

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students so they can plan
instruction based on their

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needs, to help inform
state policy decisions,

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to provide parents with
information about their

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children, so they can know
which skills to work on at home.

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>>As kindergarten
teachers,

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our job is to get to know
them from the beginning

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so that we know how to support them
instructionally and

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emotionally and socially
throughout the year.

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>>One of the best things
is the observational data.

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It just gives us an idea -
or it gives me an idea -

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of where my students are
and where I need to take

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them.

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>>I think the data that I
collected will definitely

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help instruction.

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I think it was a very
natural assessment to

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give.

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>>It really forced us to
consider multiple ways to

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look at children and
multiple ways to gather

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information and to be
creative in the way that

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we set up our classroom
and our environment to

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support students.

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>>The Kindergarten
Readiness Assessment is an

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exciting new tool that
will help to ensure our

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children are prepared
for their education and

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careers.

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For more information about
the Kindergarten Readiness

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Assessment, please talk
with your child's teacher,

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the school system or
visit the website at

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maryland.kready.org.

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