Mississippi kindergarten assessment closer to pre-pandemic levels

July 26 – Mississippi kindergarteners are making gains in the past school year that have them closer to where they were before the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s according to the 2023-24 Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA) results recently released by the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE).

DeSoto County Schools kindergarteners finished the year showing improvements but were still below the state average end-of-year target score.

Kindergarteners and pre-K students take a readiness assessment in the fall and spring of each school year. When the 2023-24 kindergarteners were retested in spring 2024, 63.8 percent met the end-of-year benchmark score of 681, an increase from 61.4 percent in spring 2023. Before the pandemic in spring 2019, 65.6 percent of kindergartners met the target score.

Here are the state figures, from MDE.  

DeSoto County Schools, as a district, had 56.19 percent make the target score or higher on the KRA. The best percentage came from Hernando Elementary at 79.2 percent, followed by Lake Cormorant Elementary at 74.71 percent of children scoring at or above 681.  

The lowest percentage came from Hope Sullivan Elementary at 26.11 percent.  

Here are the figures for the elementary schools in DeSoto County Schools (DCS). 

The Kindergarten Readiness Assessment provides parents, teachers, and early childhood providers with a common understanding of what children know and are able to do upon entering school. Teachers use the results as an instructional baseline to tailor classroom instruction and other services for pre-K and kindergarten students.​ The assessment also measures how well pre-K programs prepare 4-year-old children to be ready for kindergarten.

The State Board of Education recently approved a contract for Imagination Station, Inc. to administer the assessments beginning in the 2024-25 school year. MDE will work with the new vendor to set the 30-day window for the KRA pre-test for fall 2024.