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Mississippi Kindergarten Readiness Assessment shows students making gains
By Sethanie Smith,
9 hours ago
JACKSON, Miss. ( WJTV ) – On Thursday, the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) released the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA) results for the 2023-24 school year. According to MDE, the results showed students’ gains during the past year have them coming closer to reaching pre-pandemic achievement levels.
Kindergarteners and pre-K students take a Kindergarten Readiness Assessment in the fall and spring of each school year. When the 2023-24 kindergarteners were retested in spring 2024, officials said 63.8% met the end-of-year target score, an increase from 61.4% in spring 2023. Before the pandemic in spring 2019, 65.6% of kindergartners met the target score.
“Mississippi’s early childhood educators continue to improve achievement among our kindergarten and pre-K students,” said Dr. Lance Evans, state superintendent of education. “The MDE expects this upward trend to continue as we implement strategies and enhance our support for teachers statewide.”
PERCENTAGES OF KINDERGARTEN AND PRE-K STUDENTS MEETING END-OF-YEAR TARGET SCORE
Year
Kindergarten
ELC Pre-K
SIP Pre-K
Other Public Pre-K
Spring 2024
63.8%
67.2%
64.2%
60.8%
Spring 2023
61.4%
64.8%
N/A
64.5%
Spring 2019
65.6%
76.9%
N/A
69.3%
For pre-K students in MDE’s Early Learning Collaboratives (ELC), officials said 67.2% met the end-of-year target score in spring 2024, compared to 64.8% in spring 2023. Before the pandemic in spring 2019, 76.9% of ELC pre-K students met the target score. For pre-K students in other public pre-K programs, 60.8% met the end-of-year target score in spring 2024, compared to 64.5% in spring 2023 and 69.3% in spring 2019.
For the first time, the KRA Update includes results from the State Invested Pre-K (SIP) programs, which began in August 2023. The SIP program expanded MDE’s offering of high-quality pre-K programs and was created after the Mississippi Legislature in 2022 appropriated $20 million in new state funding to provide grants to public schools not participating in an ELC. Results show 64.2% of SIP pre-K students met the target score in spring 2024.
Total students tested were 32,736 in kindergarten, 6,193 in ELCs, 891 in SIPs, and 3,999 in other pre-K programs.
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